Same Time Next Year
by MZephyr
Summary: RanmaxAkane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the nekoken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the nekoken training and Akane's mother has died.
1. The Cat in the Cemetery

**Same Time Next Year  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the neko-ken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the neko-ken training and Akane's mother has died.

I want to provide fair warning: This story will not retell the portion of Akane's and Ranma's lives covered by the manga, even in alternate form. It is intended at the outset to tell a story only up until the point of their engagement. For those who wish some sense for how the rest of this history would play out differently from the beginning told here, a short appendix will be appended summarizing some of the key events. Your imagination will need to fill in the rest.

* * *

**Chapter 1. The Cat in the Cemetery**

It was a cold and dreary morning, the sort of morning when most sensible folk stay indoors somewhere. But on the outskirts of Tokyo, in a vacant lot, knelt a man who appeared to be in his thirties, huddling close to a fire for warmth and holding a steaming cup of tea as well. He was wearing a worn and stained gi, and the cloth upon his head could not hide the fact that he was nearly bald. As he sipped from his tea, he cast occasional glances toward the boards on the ground beside him. These covered a pit which he had himself dug several days earlier, for the purpose it was now serving. Faint animal noises could be heard from below, produced by the multitude of cats he had put down there. As the man sipped some more tea, he wondered if today would be the day on which his lazy son would learn the current lesson the boy had been set. He gave a little smile as he imagined the praise he would receive when his heir mastered this unbeatable martial arts technique. Even the wife he had not seen in four years would have to be impressed by this feat.

Without warning, the noise level from down in the hole increased sharply, as yowls of alarm pierced the air. The waiting father stood up in excitement, his tea still in hand.

Could it be? Had the boy learned the little known neko-ken? He stepped forward, trying to divine the answer from the noises being made within the pit. Then, with shocking suddenness, the boards covering the pit erupted into the air, causing him to spill his tea and forcing him to take a step backward. Frightened felines exploded from the open pit. They were followed by a young boy, covered in blood from the innumerable scratches visible on every exposed portion of skin, staining his white gi red. He landed on the ground in a crouch, and turned eyes devoid of human intellect on his abruptly nervous father. With a feral howl, the boy's hands slashed at the air between them, somehow shredding the man's clothing and leaving long bloody cuts showing beneath. With another howl, the boy leapt away, running off down the street, and was quickly lost to his stunned father's sight.

The boy paused briefly in front of a quaint house. An old woman lived there who, out of compassion for the child, had given him food every day for the last week to ease his empty stomach. Perhaps remembering her kindness, he yowled piteously for several minutes, but received no response. Unfortunately for him, she was dealing with the chill of the day by indulging in a relaxing soak in her furo, listening to music and pretending that she was somewhere warm and exotic. Thus she did not hear the pitiful cries outside her house. However, they did attract the attention of a stray dog, which came running up the street at the feline sound. A moment later it was running even faster, with the loudly growling boy hot on its heels.

* * *

Ten year old Akane Tendo shivered, as the February breeze bit through her coat and dress, and a few lazy snowflakes floated by as if reluctant to join the four centimeters of snow already on the ground. Her arms were wrapped around the cold granite of a headstone, and the tears which had leaked out of her eyes were slowly freezing on her face. She felt bad about disobeying her father. He had told her that she had to stop coming to the cemetery every day after school, but it was only a week since she had watched them lower her mother's coffin into the ground! She so badly wanted to be able to have her mother hug her again, the way that she was currently hugging her mother's grave marker.

Besides, it wasn't like her father was taking the loss of Akane's mother very well either. He kept breaking into loud, helpless sobs whenever something reminded him, and it seemed that everything reminded him. A few of his students had quit taking classes at the dojo he operated because of his emotional behavior. Her two older sisters seemed to be handling matters a little better, but they were definitely grieving as well. Nabiki, at eleven, was acting ashamed of her father's lack of control, becoming emotionally withdrawn in response. Kasumi, who was thirteen, was keeping herself very busy with housework and cooking to help keep the pain at bay, but Akane knew that her oldest sister had also paid several discreet visits to the cemetery this last week.

Another cold gust crept down her neck, and she took a moment to adjust her scarf more snugly. Akane thought a little guiltily about the homework waiting back in her room that was due the next day. She was in the fourth grade now, and was determined to do well at both her schoolwork and her martial arts training so that she would be able to take over the family dojo when the time came. The martial arts skills came to her very naturally, but she had to work harder to do as well at her academic studies. She could spare a little more time for her mother today, but soon she would have to go home.

A commotion over near the open gates caught her attention, and Akane looked up to see what was going on. Three older boys, whom Akane knew to be neighborhood bullies, were there, taunting a smaller child she did not know. Their victim was visibly upset, almost bouncing around with fury. Setting a determined scowl on her face, Akane stood and started marching over to give the bullies a piece of her mind and try to scare them off. Was it a girl they were tormenting? As she drew closer, she saw that the other child had long black hair pulled back into a pigtail, and appeared to be about her own age. The girl, as Akane decided she was, must also be a martial artist, as she was wearing a frayed and discolored gi.

Akane slowed down momentarily as she realized that there was something odd about the way the girl moved. It almost looked as if she was using her hands as much as her feet to move around. Almost as if she was crippled or badly injured. By now, Akane was close enough to finally understand the true nature of the ragged and dirty condition of the girl's clothing. She could see that it was ripped and torn, and the young girl was literally covered in blood, the result of what looked like hundreds of small wounds and scratches all over her body.

Akane felt her temper erupt at this evidence of abuse, especially given that the unknown girl did not appear to be able to stand normally. Although her training in the martial arts still had a long way to go, Akane was already a force to be reckoned with, as several children even four or five years older had occasionally had cause to learn. She broke into a run, trying to get there before anything else could happen, but realized in horror that she was going to be too late when she saw the gang leader lift a baseball bat over his head and prepare to swing.

The swing was never completed. At that moment, the crippled girl growled and swiped out with her hand, a seemingly ineffective blow which connected with nothing. Akane was therefore all the more amazed to see the bat fall into several pieces. Then she didn't have time to spare for wondering, as she was among the group and was lashing out with her fists and feet, dimly aware that the pigtailed kid was fighting as well.

Yelling with alarm, the three would-be tormenters ran off, sporting several bruises and trying to hold together their shredded clothing. Akane gave a satisfied nod, then turned around to see an innocent, wide-eyed, indefinably _masculine_ face looking back at her. A boy, she realized, not a girl after all. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a long, questioning, "Meeowww?"

Akane was so surprised, she fell right down on her rump. Speechlessly, she just sat there as the strange boy walked over to her using all four limbs, moving simultaneously on both his hands and feet. He circled her slowly, sniffing curiously, and mewling occasionally. The kid butted his head against Akane's arm imperiously, and with no little trepidation she lifted her hand and rubbed the back of his head, scratching lightly. That seemed to be what he wanted. The boy started making a purring sound at this, then flopped down across Akane's legs, curling up into a near fetal position, and seemed to go to sleep.

Akane looked around in helpless bewilderment, thankful that no one else was present at the cemetery on this chilly day to witness the strange scene. Looking down at the boy lying in her lap, she made a closer inspection of him. His clothing was worn and had seen better days even before its more recent damage, but was now badly stained and ripped in hundreds of places. His hands, feet and face bore many scratches and bite marks, some of which were still bleeding, and as she examined the tears in his clothing, she saw more scratches and blood visible on the skin underneath. Further, he was not wearing a coat, shoes or anything else except for the shirt and pants of his gi, and he was trying to curl up more firmly to her warmth as he lay there shivering.

Akane wished that her father were there to tell her what to do, but quickly changed it to a wish for her sister Kasumi, who was more likely to be of help these days. Neither of them, of course, showed up in response to her wish. She tried nudging the strange boy off of her lap, but he lay there as immovable as a lead weight, and the cold ground was starting to chill her posterior and legs. ‹Great. I'm going to be forced to sit here until I freeze because a boy who thinks he's a cat decided to go to sleep on my lap.› Akane felt a little ashamed of such thoughts as she realized that the boy was in a much worse state than her, but still, she was starting to feel _very_ cold. Her grief for her mother, having temporarily receded to the back of her thoughts, now returned in full force as she longed for someone to help her.

As she continued to sit there, Akane started to get very worried. The snow under her bottom was melting and soaking into her pants, and this was becoming painfully cold. The boy in her lap also needed attention for his wounds, and she could see that his feet were starting to turn blue where they lay in the snow. Once again she tried to push him off of her lap, only to have him grunt sleepily and settle back down even harder. In growing frustration, she shoved hard and watched him roll over several times before banging his head against a gravestone. He opened his eyes and blinked at her, and Akane began to worry as she remembered the bat and the torn clothing of the bullies, hoping he wouldn't think she had tried to attack him.

The girl saw dawning awareness returning to the pigtailed boy's eyes. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, his eyes widened in remembered horror and he began to scream, curling up to hide his face in his knees and throwing his arms over his head. Akane was so startled that it took her a few moments to make out what he was saying.

"No, please daddy! Don't throw me in again! I don't know how to learn it! They're hurting me so bad! They hate me! Please don't make me go back in! Please, please, please ..." Exhausted, his voice trailed off in choking sobs, racking his entire body.

Akane looked around, once again wishing that some adult would come and tell her how to handle this. She thought about her own sorrow, and how much she wanted someone to hold her and try to ease her pain. Having no better idea, she decided to see if doing so might give the boy some comfort. So Akane slowly got up and walked over, to kneel beside him and put her arm around his shoulder. Speaking quietly, she told him, "No one's going to hurt you anymore. There's no one here but me. What's wrong? Can you tell me? Are you badly hurt?"

He might not have even heard her. He flinched away and began pleading again, heartbreakingly, too hoarse to scream. "I don't want to learn this technique, daddy. Please stop. I can't stand it anymore. Why are you making me do this? I'm sorry I'm weak, but I can't do it again. I hurt so much! Please don't, please don't, please. I don't think I wanna be a martial artist."

That last sentiment shocked Akane down to her core. There was nothing that she wanted more than to be a martial artist. She couldn't imagine anything which could change the way she felt about that. She had to break through this boy's madness and find out what was wrong. She tried to think what Kasumi would do. Hoping that she wasn't making a mistake, Akane leaned over and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly, and spoke directly into his ear. "Nobody's going to hurt you. I promise. There isn't anyone here to hurt you. If you're worried about your father, he isn't here either. I'm the only one here, and I don't even know what you're talking about."

She felt the boy grow still underneath her, and then saw him turn a tear-streaked face up to her in bewilderment, finally noticing her for the first time. Still sniffling, he asked. "Wh-who are you? Where am I? Where's daddy?"

Her answer was as calm as she could make it. "I don't know where your father is. You're in a cemetery in Nerima. My name is Akane Tendo, and I came here to visit my momma."

"How'd I get _here_?"

Akane shook her head. "I don't know. I saw you come through the gate being chased by some big boys. They're always picking on smaller kids, but we chased them off." She paused, wondering if she should mention this next thing. But it was so strange, she had to. "You were acting like a cat. You meow'd at me, and then, um," Akane found herself blushing a little, "you curled up on my lap and went to sleep. I had to knock you off 'cause the snow was starting to make me cold. That's when you woke up and started yelling."

Akane decided that the hug had served its purpose, as he had calmed down a little, even if he was still looking very puzzled. She backed off slightly, giving him a chance to sit up, and asked him, "What's your name?"

"I'm Ranma Saotome. I don't understand. The last thing I remember, well, I don't really want to remember it, but I wasn't anywhere near _here_. I don't think I was, anyway. What happened?"

Akane shrugged. "I don't know. I think maybe we better go to my house. It's only a couple of kilometers away. Do you think you can get that far? Maybe my daddy will know what to do. And you've got to clean off all of those scratches before they get infected. Not to mention that you need some new clothes."

Ranma was looking scared again. "Please don't tell your father about me. Or anyone else. They'll make me go back to my dad. I ... I don't wanna do that. He might make me ... I don't wanna. Please?"

A light suddenly dawned in Akane's young mind, with a horrible certainty that she wanted to reject. "Ranma ... all those scratches and stuff. I thought the bullies did that to you. Did ... did your daddy do that to you?"

Ranma hung his head in shame. "He ... he said I had to learn this new technique he read about. But I don't think I can. And I know I don't wanna try any more. I'm scared. Please don't tell anyone."

Akane paled, feeling sick to her stomach that any parent could be so mean to their own child. The school nurse had talked about this sort of thing to her class, so she knew it could happen, but that didn't carry the emotional punch of seeing the result. She felt her heart opening to this boy, wanting to find some way to help him. She didn't think her father would make him go back to such a monster, but the idea clearly terrified Ranma. If he were to trust her, then she would have to do as he asked for now.

In a shaky voice, she said, "Okay, Ranma. I promise I won't tell my daddy or my sisters. But you do need to wash those scratches and put some medicine on them, or you'll get sick." Akane paused and thought for a moment. "If you come back home with me, I think I can sneak you into the basement of our dojo. Nobody goes down there very often. It'll be warmer there than outside, and I can get you some medicine, and bandages, and food. Will that be all right?"

Ranma's thoughts had mostly been turned inward up to this point, but when Akane made this offer, he stared at her in shock that someone was actually trying to be _nice_ to him. He had looked at her before, now he finally saw her. She was about his age he thought, with short black hair, and large chocolate-brown eyes. Her movements were graceful, and a kind smile adorned her face. Her clothes were of much better quality than his, and the thought that her family even had their own dojo made him terribly envious. On the other hand, his empty belly made him feel a rush of gratitude for the offer of food. Ranma gave her a weak smile and nodded his head, then struggled to stand on his frozen feet.

Akane grabbed Ranma's arm as soon as he was on his feet, afraid that he'd tumble right over. Between the cold and his injuries, and the fact that he was barefoot, he was limping pretty badly. She bit her lower lip, worried that he might get frostbite as they walked along the icy sidewalk, but she didn't know what else to do. There weren't a lot of houses between the cemetery and her home, it was mostly warehouses and public lands like the canal and park. There wasn't really anyplace to ask for help, even if Ranma would let her, not that she thought he would. She'd never met anyone so scared before. She'd never had anyone depending on her so strongly before, either. It made her feel strange. When her house came in sight, she pointed to it, and Ranma nodded, his teeth chattering too hard between blue lips for him to speak.

Slipping around to the back gate, Akane helped Ranma into the dojo while keeping a sharp eye out for her family, and led him down into the basement, which was used for storage. Ranma sat down on a stack of mats, cross-legged so that his feet were up off of the cold floor. The basement itself was not heated, but the dojo above it was, and although it was cooler below, the temperature was much warmer than outdoors. Promising to come back soon with bandages and something for him to eat, Akane left and entered the house.

Her oldest sister Kasumi confronted her almost before she was inside the house. "Akane, there you are! Where have you been? Father was getting so worried. You should let someone know before you go out for so long."

Akane hung her head. "I'm sorry Kasumi. Is daddy around?"

Her barely-teenaged sister shook her head. "No, I'm afraid he left a short time ago. Some old friend of his called wanting advice, so daddy went to meet him. Do you need help with something? I'm afraid Nabiki's out also, something about talking to some boys who owe her some money, and I have to go get some groceries. But I'll be back in a little bit, if you can wait that long. Will you be okay home all alone by yourself? Or do you want to come and help me do the shopping?"

Akane couldn't believe her luck. "I'm sorry, oneechan, but I really should get started on my homework. Don't worry, I'll be fine here by myself. I am ten years old, after all. Is it okay if I fix myself a snack, though?"

Kasumi smiled at this, then picked up a basket and headed for the door, where she put on her coat and shoes. "Of course it's okay, little sister. Well, I'll be going now. Are you sure you'll be okay? Take care of yourself. I should be back in about an hour." She opened the door and left.

Akane immediately rushed back out into the dojo, and down into the basement, startling Ranma into hiding behind the mats by her sudden appearance. She rocked to a stop a few meters away, feeling contrite. "Sorry, Ranma. I just found out my family is all out of the house. We probably have about an hour. So it's safe for you to come into the house, where you can use our furoba and wash those scratches properly. Come on!" Darting forward, she grabbed his arm and started tugging him back up the stairs. Once inside, Akane shoved Ranma through the door into the changing room, then shut it behind him to go take care of something else. The boy looked around himself bemusedly, then peeled off the rags he was wearing and stepped into the bathing room. He felt numb while he washed and watched the red-tinted water go down the drain. A short time later, Ranma was sitting in the hot water of the furo, finally starting to feel warm again.

Not long after, he heard Akane's voice through the door. "Are you finished in there yet, Ranma?"

Reluctantly, he lifted himself out of the hot water, knowing that time was limited. "Yeah, I'll be out in a minute," he responded, then dried himself off. Wrapping the towel around his body modestly, he stepped back out into the changing room. Once they were facing one another, both children found themselves feeling very awkward.

"Um, I found you an old gi that I think will fit," Akane said nervously, holding out the garments but not looking directly at him, "and an old pair of Kasumi's slippers that shouldn't be too big. I can't do anything about the, uh, underwear though. I figure you wouldn't want to wear girl's stuff, and daddy's is too big."

Ranma took the clothing from her gratefully and told her, "That's okay. My outer clothes took the worst of the damage. And my t-shirt. But my, um, underpants were mostly undamaged. I can still wear 'em."

With that settled, Akane picked up the antiseptic and bandages she had collected. She bit her lip, as a wave of shyness washed over her at being in a room with a boy who was only wearing a towel. Diffidently, she asked, "Would you like me to put the medicine on you? I don't think you can do it all yourself. You might have trouble getting to some of the spots, like the ones on your back."

Ranma immediately tried to look at his back over his shoulder. When Akane giggled, he realized with a rueful grin that it would be next to impossible and agreed that she'd have to help. He made sure that the towel was securely around his waist and sat down, his back to her. Akane spent some time smearing ointment on the multitude of scratches and bites, and putting bandages on the worst ones. Biting her lip at the thought of the question she was about to ask, Akane inquired, "Ranma? Do you think you could you tell me what happened to you? I know you said your daddy did this, but a lot of these look like animal bites."

The young boy flinched at her carefully worded question, but enough time had passed to allow him to recover a little of his poise. After all she had done for him, he figured Akane had a right to know about it, and he managed to keep his voice mostly steady as he answered.

"My dad's been training me in the martial arts. We practice the Saotome School of Anything Goes ..."

Akane interrupted him, her eyes wide with surprised excitement. "You're kidding! My daddy's training me in the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

Ranma stared at her for a long moment in surprise. Finally, he declared, "That's weird. I wonder if they know each other?" This idea suddenly worried him, but Akane had already promised not to tell her father about him. As the girl applied medicine to his back, he resumed his tale. "Anyway, he found this book that talked about a martial arts technique called the 'neko-ken.' It's supposed to be unbeatable. So he told me I had to learn it."

The boy shivered slightly under Akane's hands. "Two days ago he took me out to this pit, where he tied me up and wrapped fish sausages around me. Then he tossed me in, and put a cover over the top." Ranma's voice subsided to a dead monotone. "The pit was full of c-cats. Hungry ones. He hadn't fed them for a couple of days. They jumped all over me, to get at the food. They were biting and scratching pretty fierce. My pop had left just enough give in the rope for me to cover my eyes with my hands."

Akane had to remind herself to breathe. She couldn't believe that someone could be so hideously cruel to anyone, let alone to his own son. She started to cry silently as Ranma's voice went on, deliberately emotionless. "I was begging and screaming for him to let me out, but he wouldn't. I finally passed out. I think. At least, I woke up to find him rinsing the blood off of me. But I hadn't learned the technique. So he threw me in again yesterday. And again today." Ranma shuddered suddenly and hid his face.

Before she could stop it, a small sob broke from Akane's throat. Ignoring that, Ranma continued. "I don't know what happened today. The last thing I remember before waking up to find you there was having all of those c-cats all over me, clawing me, hurting me, ..." His voice trailed off, and he began shivering. He seemed to be hurting so badly, Akane wanted to do something to help. Whenever she felt that bad about anything, her mother had always been there. Tentatively, she put her arms around him, squeezing him in a tight hug. It seemed to help as Ranma stopped shivering. "I don't know what my dad will do when he finds me. I ... I don't wanna go in that pit again." He leaned into the embrace, like a much younger child, afraid of the dark and reaching for comfort anywhere offered.

Akane held him until he was ready to let go, and then, as matter-of-factly as possible, she reached for one of his arms and started applying ointment on his scratches again. As she did so, she thought back over the events in the cemetery. "You know, Ranma, I think it must have done _something_ to you. I don't know if it's the neko-ken, since I don't know what that is. But when you were in the cemetery, before you fell asleep, you were acting like a cat and making noises that sounded like one. But more importantly is what happened when you were fighting. This one boy tried to hit you with a baseball bat, and you sort of reached out and ... I don't know what you did, but the bat fell in several pieces that looked like they'd been cut off with knives. And then there were their clothes. I didn't see that as clearly since I was fighting too, but when they ran off I saw that their clothes were just totally shredded."

Ranma pondered her words, then shook himself. "I don't know if it's the neko-ken either, but I'll tell my pop about it when he finds me. Maybe he'll decide that I learned enough and not make me try again."

Akane was gingerly treating Ranma's face now, her mouth screwed up in concentration. "I thought you didn't want your daddy to find you?"

Ranma looked ashamed about being afraid of his father. "I, well, I don't want him to. At least not right away. Not until those cats have had a chance to get away. But I'm sure he'll find me eventually. I just hope it will take a while. I ... I love the martial arts. I'm afraid that if he finds me right away, he might make me do something that will make me scared to continue my training. I just ... I want a little time, first. Besides, who else would take me?"

"What about your mom?" Akane asked. "Where is she?"

Ranma looked very sad, and spoke quietly. "I haven't seen my mom since I was six. I think she musta died. Why else hasn't my pop ever taken me home to her?"

Akane looked sad as well, almost as if she would start crying, as she finally started working on his legs. "Oh! I'm sorry I said that. That's terrible. My ... my momma passed away just over a week ago, so I know how much it hurts. And at least I knew her four more years than you knew your mom."

Ranma smiled at her weakly. "Hey, it's not so bad. I've had time to get used to it. I'm really, really sorry to hear about your mom. That makes it even more incredible that you're willing to help me like this. You must be feeling awful still."

Akane blinked back her tears. "Yeah, well, in a way, it's kinda nice to have something to do to keep me from thinking about it. It's been hard, and I'm so tired of it hurting all the time. I think daddy has been getting worried about me, too." She decided to get off of this topic. "So anyway, I'll help you stay hidden from your father for now, for as long as you want. Well, as long as I can. We can probably keep anybody from finding you for a few days at least, if you stay down in the dojo basement. Sooner or later somebody's bound to notice something unusual, though."

Ranma nodded, grateful for all of her help. "Thanks. I mean ... well, thanks. I ... I don't know how to say thank you properly. You've been so great, and you don't even know me or anything."

Akane smiled up at him, feeling shy. "I don't mind. I want to help." Her face hardened in juvenile condemnation. "I think your daddy's been horrible. Besides, I'm a martial artist too, and my daddy says that martial artists are _supposed_ to help people. Now, I think that's the last of your scratches, so I'm gonna leave and you better get dressed so you can come out and get something to eat before anyone comes home." She picked up the medical supplies and then left the room with them.

It wasn't long before Ranma was out in the kitchen, eating some leftovers Akane pulled out of the refrigerator. The snack Akane had mentioned to Kasumi hadn't done much more than whet his appetite. "I hope that's enough now, Ranma. We can't take too much or it would get noticed. I can't cook you anything because I haven't really learned how to yet, and my sister Kasumi would be bound to notice if I tried. Kasumi's my oldest sister. She's been doing all of the cooking and cleaning and stuff since my momma got sick. Nabiki's my other sister." Akane made a face but didn't add anything to that.

"That's okay," Ranma declared, devouring the last of what she had put in front of him. "I'm used to not getting a lot to eat. We never seem to have much food, and part of my training is that I have to fight my dad for every scrap of food I'm allowed to eat. He's much bigger and better than I am, so I don't get much." Ranma was not looking in Akane's direction, and thus failed to see the look of distress on her face upon hearing this description.

They got Ranma back out into the dojo's basement with time to spare, and with his condition much improved. He was warm and bathed, and his wounds had been cleaned and bandaged. He was wearing a gi that was clean and in good repair, even if it wasn't new. His stomach was no longer empty. Akane had supplied him with a couple of old blankets to help keep him warm, and to make sleeping more comfortable. She had even given him a book on Japanese history to help hold off boredom, although Ranma was giving it a slightly dubious look. Since Kasumi was due back soon, Akane was forced to leave him there and go back inside, with his thanks echoing in her ears.

At dinner that night, Akane's father took her to task for disappearing for so long that afternoon, and he wouldn't let it drop even after she apologized for worrying him. Kasumi finally diverted his attention from her little sister by asking, "Were you able to help your friend today, father?"

Soun Tendo shook his head sorrowfully. "No, not really. It's a sad story, I'm afraid. My friend Saotome-san was training his son Ranma in an advanced technique today, when there was a mishap. Saotome-san was injured, and Ranma-kun ran off and has not yet been found. Since they were training on the outskirts of Nerima, my friend was hoping that I might have some ideas as to where to look for his son, but I fear that I was unable to be of much help. Of course, I told him that I would keep my eyes and ears open for the boy, and inform my neighbors to do so as well."

He looked around at his daughters. "If any of you girls should happen to see a young boy about Akane's age, with blue eyes and long black hair tied into a pigtail, then please let me know right away. He will have several bad scratches that he got when the accident occurred. His father is very worried about him. I feel very badly for his loss. It is hard being a man alone raising children and I don't know what I would do if I lost any of you." He began to cry, and gathered all three girls into his damp embrace.

Early into this speech, Akane felt the blood drain from her face and her mouth go dry. She was very glad that no one was watching her. Ranma had been more right than he knew to worry about telling her father! This certainly answered the speculation he had voiced earlier about whether their fathers might know one another. She firmed her resolve to let neither her father nor her sisters know of Ranma's presence.

Over the next couple of days, Akane found several chances to sneak food out to the dojo for Ranma, and spent time talking to him while he ate. A friendship began to grow between them as a result of these chats, as well as her concern for him and his gratitude to her. Unlike Yuka and Sayuri, her best friends at school, Ranma shared her interest in martial arts, and was willing to talk about it endlessly without growing bored. They even found a couple of opportunities to spar up in the dojo, which was fun not only for the chance to practice martial arts with someone skilled and near her own age, but also for the spice of danger that someone might return early and catch them. However, in Akane's opinion, Ranma did spend a little too much time showing off during these sessions.

From comments made by her own father, Akane kept track of the progress of the search. She learned that Ranma's father, Genma, had found some people who had seen the boy, and he had even managed to track his son as far as the cemetery. Ranma's description had been passed to all of the people in the neighborhood, and both of them realized that they weren't going to be able to keep him hidden for very much longer. Akane found herself growing depressed at the thought that Ranma would have to return to his abusive father, but her new friend accepted it philosophically. At least he had had several days of peace and quiet in which to recover, and Ranma thought it unlikely that his father would attempt to continue the neko-ken training at this point.

The day finally came when Ranma decided it was time to leave and allow himself to be "discovered," before he got Akane into trouble. He planned to use the excuse of his neko-ken amnesia to avoid explaining how his injuries had been treated and why he was well-fed and clothed. The two of them were standing together in the basement of the dojo, trying to say good-bye.

"I ... I'm going to miss you, Ranma," Akane said softly, through a throat which was starting to close up. "I wish you didn't have to go."

"Yeah, I wish I didn't have to either," Ranma replied with a touch of melancholy. "It's been real nice talking to you, and this basement has been more comfortable than a lot of places pop and me have stayed."

"Do you think we'll ever see each other again?" Akane asked her friend.

Ranma nodded decisively. "One way or another, I'll make sure of that. Pop and I travel all over Japan, but we do come back this way once in a while. When we do, I'll find a way to slip away from him for a few days and meet up with you. We'd better keep it a secret though. I know pop doesn't think much of girls, so if he finds out about it, he may try to find some way to stop me."

Akane found herself breathing a little more easily and smiled. "I'll look forward to seeing you again, then."

The boy returned her smile, finding that he was looking forward to it as well. "It won't be too often, though," he warned her. "Maybe once a year, if I'm lucky. I don't think I'll be able to manage any better than that."

"Next February then," Akane replied with determination, as though she could make it happen by sheer power of will alone. "We're friends now, and friends visit friends. Besides, it'll be the first anniversary of my mother's death and ..." She trailed off, leaving unspoken the thought that she would probably welcome something to take her mind off the pain at that time.

Upon hearing her words, Ranma resolved to do everything in his power to show up in Nerima again the next February. "All right. I'll see you then. Keep up with your training - I expect you to still be a good sparring partner when I return."

"I will. And you try to find some way to keep up with your studies. Martial arts isn't _everything_, and I don't want a dumb friend."

They held out their hands to one another, and clasped pinkies. Simultaneously, they said, "Friends." With a final smile, they climbed the stairs, and Akane watched Ranma slip out of the dojo and through the back gate. "Goodbye, Ranma," she whispered softly.


	2. Eleven and Twelve

**Same Time Next Year  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the neko-ken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the neko-ken training and Akane's mother has died.

* * *

**Chapter 2. Eleven and Twelve**

On a bitterly cold day in February, with temperatures well below freezing, Akane Tendo, now eleven, was feeling very sorry for herself. The anniversary of her mother's death had taken place two days ago, and the whole family had come out to the cemetery to visit her grave. Now she was out here by herself, clapping her mittened hands together to try to keep them warm, while wondering where Ranma was and if he would even be showing up someday soon. It wasn't the first time she had wondered that, or whether he remembered her at all. Perhaps he had completely forgotten about her, traveling around the country with his father. The few days they'd known each other were burned into her memory, but did he feel the same?

A year was a very long time, especially when there had been no communication between them. She wished that there could have been some way to at least talk to him during that time. It was a pity that neither of them had given any thought to how they were to meet if and when he reappeared. Since it would be dangerous for him to come directly to her house looking for her, the only idea she had was to try to meet where they had first seen one another, at the cemetery. Thus her cold hands, not to mention ears, and nose, and other parts.

Even if he did come, Akane couldn't help but wonder if they'd remain friends, as they got older and they each went through changes in their lives. A couple of months after Ranma's intrusion into her life, shortly after her eleventh birthday, fourteen year old Kasumi had closeted herself with Akane in Akane's bedroom, and given her the "talk." Then three months ago, Kasumi had prepared the traditional meal of red beans and rice for Akane's entry into womanhood. The girl found herself reflecting that Ranma Saotome's continued existence might have been in jeopardy had he shown up at that time. It seemed terribly unfair that boys didn't have to put up with such an indignity, but she was starting to come to terms with it.

Squatting down in front of her mother's headstone got her out of most of the wind, even if it did nothing for the cold. If her mother had been alive, she would have given Akane the talk, would have prepared the meal, not that Kasumi hadn't done the best she could, but Akane missed her mother. So many things had fallen to Kasumi, as the eldest. She had to do most of the housework and cooking, had to fill most of the roles of a mother for her two younger sisters. Kasumi had grown more reserved these days; trying to act as though she was already grown up, Akane thought, instead of just fourteen. She seemed rather shy around other people, although unrelentingly cheerful, and everyone always smiled when they saw her.

Their father still hadn't recovered from her mother's death, and would start crying over the smallest things. There were fewer students at the dojo these days, yet he hardly seemed to notice, or to make any effort to turn things around. In contrast to their father's increasingly emotional behavior, Nabiki was slowly turning colder, unwilling to show her emotions at all, and she was developing an extraordinary interest in money.

Akane felt that she, on the other hand, hadn't changed so much from who she'd been the previous year. She was a bit more inclined to moodiness at times, and was ruefully aware that her temper had grown less certain. Perhaps she had thrown herself into martial arts training to a greater degree than ever, hoping to impress Ranma when ... if ... he returned. But that was it.

She had become so absorbed in these thoughts, that she didn't realize she wasn't alone until a hand dropped onto her shoulder. Akane shrieked, jumping up and around, to find the pigtailed boy giving her an urchin grin, unrepentant at having startled her. The size of the pack on his back filled her with amazement. How could he lift that, let alone move around with it?

"Hi, Akane," he said mischievously.

Akane put her hands on her hips and gave him a medium intensity glare, but found it impossible to keep it up, she was so happy to see him. "Hello, Ranma," she replied, ducking her head shyly. "So you managed to get away after all. I was beginning to wonder."

"Yeah, I left pop before dawn a couple of days ago, a ways southwest of Tokyo. I wrote a note for him saying I wanted to visit a friend I'd made at one of the temples here, and that I'd meet up with him in a week at our next stop, a dojo up in the mountains to the north. That'll give me three or four days before I need to leave. And I told you, the timing on this is never gonna be exact, it depends on where pop and I are each year around this time. But just so you know, I did think about getting away earlier. Then I decided it would be better to show up after the anniversary of your mom dying. That way you don't have to pretend to be happy to see me when you're really feeling sad."

"I suppose," Akane said, a touch of sorrow crossing her face like a cloud hiding the sun, and then disappeared again. "So is your father still as bad as he was last year? Do we really need to keep your visit a secret?"

"Oh yeah." Ranma shook his head in disgust. "He's not only 'as bad,' he's been getting worse. It turned out that the neko-ken training had a nasty side effect; it's left me completely terrified of cats. Pop seems to have taken that pretty hard. He keeps going on about how I have to be manly, and not weak like a girl, and he's training me harder than ever. I think it would be a real bad idea for him to find out I've made friends with a girl, and run off to visit her."

Akane sighed in frustration, wondering why Ranma's father had to be so unpleasant. "Well, I wasn't really expecting anything else, I guess. At least now I don't have to keep coming out in the cold to wait for you."

Ranma looked apologetic. "We probably oughta come up with some better way of meeting than one of us waiting in this freezing cemetery for the other one to show up."

Akane chuckled weakly. "I was thinking the same thing. How about if I give you our telephone number? Then when you want to meet, you can call up and say you're Yuka's brother and need to give me a message for her. Yuka's a good friend of mine, by the way. If I'm home, I'll take the phone and you can just tell me when you'll be there. Otherwise you can leave a message saying, oh, I don't know, maybe saying that Yuka wants me to meet her at the library to work on an assignment together. That'll be the signal that you're in town so we can meet."

Ranma nodded. "That's pretty smart. Then we just have to decide where to meet."

"Well, if you really want to keep it secret that you've come to visit me, then we probably don't want to make it the library, or a shopping mall, or anything like that, 'cause there'd be a pretty good risk of someone spotting us who knows me." Akane paused thoughtfully, then a look of enlightenment came to her eyes. "I know! Why don't we make what you told your father into the truth? There's a small temple not far from here. It's closer to my house than this, and not many people visit it. I was there a couple of months ago. It's in good repair, nice and warm, and I think it'll be perfect. Come on, I'll show you where it is."

The two ran off together, hoping that the exercise would warm them. Before long, they arrived at the temple. Ranma looked around, not seeing any other people, and liking what he did see. It was a small, peaceful place, and the inside was indeed wonderfully cozy. He took one last look around, noting landmarks so he could find it again in future, and pronounced himself satisfied.

"Will I be able to stay in your dojo's basement again?" Ranma asked with a touch of concern. "I can't afford to stay anyplace else, and ... and I don't have much food with me."

"Yep, it's all set, food and all," Akane responded cheerfully. "I've already put some blankets and stuff down there for you. Of course, I didn't think about you bringing an entire pack like that, so there's probably more than you'll need, but anyway. Just make sure to stay close to the wall when we get near the house, so that no one can see you from the upstairs windows, and I'll go in first to check that the coast is clear."

They ran into no problems, and a short time later the two of them were sitting down in the dojo's basement. Akane looked him over carefully for any sign of the injuries he had suffered the previous February. She thought she could see a couple of scars on the backs of his hands, and one along the side of his neck, but there didn't appear to be any on his face. She decided to ask him about it. "So all those bites and scratches you had last year, did they heal all right? Did you end up with a lot of scars? I think I can see one or two."

Ranma looked down and contemplated the backs of his hands as though they were unfamiliar to him, and gave a small sigh, an expression of the regret he had initially felt over matters to which he had long since adjusted. "Yeah, it left a lot of scars, all over me, most of 'em thankfully pretty small. And there don't seem to be any on my face, which I'm happy about. The biggest damage was inside my head, where you can't see it. Whenever I see a cat now, I scream and run away as fast as I can, I can't control it. If I can't get away, then I go into the neko-ken state, where I think I'm a cat, except I don't remember anything about it afterward. That happened a couple of times when pop tried to get me over my fear of cats. He stopped doing that pretty quick though; both times when I woke up he was pretty badly clawed and his clothes had to be thrown out."

"He deserves it," Akane replied with some heat. "After doing something like that to you."

"Oh, it gets even better," the boy went on with a grimace. "I found out later that pop didn't finish reading about it before trying to teach it to me. On the next page, the book said that 'only an idiot would try to teach this technique.' Seems to describe my pop pretty well."

"I'm sorry that you're scared of cats, now," Akane told him sympathetically. "I kind of like them, myself, though we've never had any kind of pets before. If we do get one someday, I'll make sure that it's not a cat; I wouldn't want to cause you trouble the next time you came to visit."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry too," Ranma grumbled. "I hate being afraid of anything, let alone something like a cat, but I just can't seem to control it." He sighed again. "And it ain't helping that it seems to have driven my pop even more bonkers than ever about 'making a man out of me.' I'm getting kind of tired of him calling me a girl whenever he thinks I'm acting weak. He hasn't done anything as bad as the neko-ken this last year, but he's pushed the level of my training to nearly insane levels. Like, about half a year ago he broke my arm and a couple of ribs throwing stones at me."

"_Why_?" Akane demanded indignantly.

"He said something about teaching me to dodge, and toughening me up," the boy replied calmly.

She shook her head, feeling helpless in the face of her friend's suffering. "Are you really sure you should go back to him, Ranma? I mean, my daddy and your father may be old friends, but there's a chance we might be able to talk daddy into letting you stay here. Or if not daddy, then maybe you could stay with someone else?"

Ranma smiled at her, although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "But I _do_ want to be the best at martial arts, and that's one thing that I am getting from pop. We don't dare tell your father. Most likely, he'd just send me back anyway, and after that they'd know about my coming to visit you. I probably wouldn't be able to get away to come here any more, since I'm pretty sure pop would figure I'm just wasting my time when I could be training instead."

Akane sighed in resignation. "All right, we won't tell anyone. So, what have you been doing this past year? What's your father been teaching you?" The two of them spent a pleasant couple of hours talking about what they'd been doing since the last time they met. Mostly, though, they talked about martial arts, together with what limited demonstrations could be managed in the crowded basement without going up into the dojo.

The next couple of days were very pleasant for Akane, but for Ranma there was no comparison. It was the first time he had ever been able to actually enjoy spending time with a friend and the fact that he was getting more food to eat than usual was a very welcome bonus. Akane managed to hide her worry about how little food he must ordinarily be allowed to eat, given his pleased reaction over the scraps she managed to sneak to him. On the afternoon of the second day, Akane took the risk of giving Ranma a brief tour of her home so that he could see where she lived, as he had only seen the furoba and kitchen on his previous visit. They were even able to get up into the dojo to spar a few times when the rest of the family was out, to give one another more thorough demonstrations of what they had learned.

All too soon it was time for Ranma to be leaving, if he was going to meet up with his father where and when he had said he would. Akane slipped a set of schoolbooks into his backpack and once again urged him to try to keep up with his studies. They stood there looking awkwardly at each other, with Ranma wearing his pack and knowing he had to go. Finally, Akane rushed forward and threw her arms around him, hugging the boy. She whispered in his ear, "I'll see you next year, okay?" Ranma nodded silently, his own eyes glistening, then turned around and walked down the road. Akane stood there and watched until he disappeared around a corner, trying to swallow the lump which had lodged in her throat.

* * *

The last day of January was surprisingly mild for the season, and twelve year old Akane Tendo was just finishing lunch with her family when the telephone rang. Kasumi went to answer it, but came back a moment later, saying, "Akane, it's for you. It's Yuka's brother Masa. He says he has a message for you from Yuka." 

Akane paused with her cup halfway to her mouth, puzzled. ‹Why would Masa be calling me? Is something wrong with Yuka?› She put her cup down, and went to the telephone. "Hello? This is Akane Tendo."

"Hi, Akane," she heard the voice on the other end say. The voice wasn't Masa's, but it went on before she'd done more than register that fact. "Sorry I'm so early, but this is the only chance I could get. In about a week, pop is planning to take me up to someplace on Hokkaido. So I figured it was now or never. Can we meet?" Ranma. It was Ranma, weeks before she'd thought to start looking for him.

Akane turned her body around in order to hide her facial reactions in case anyone was watching. "Sure, I'll meet her there. In fact, I can leave right away. Thanks for calling." She hung up the phone and turned around, to see Nabiki watching curiously. "Yuka wants me to meet her at the library," Akane told her sister, "but forgot to call until she was out the door. She yelled back for her brother to tell me." Akane slipped up to her room to grab her coat, hoping that the lie had passed muster, then back downstairs to slip on her shoes and head out the door. She felt like a character in a spy movie, starting off in the direction of the library, then turning aside to head to the temple as soon as she was out of sight.

Ranma was standing inside the yard when she came through the temple gate, wearing a backpack just as huge as the previous year. They smiled and waved at each other, but then both got a bit of a surprise when she came closer. Bemusedly, Akane realized that she was looking _down_ at Ranma's eyes, from a height perhaps twelve centimeters taller than the boy. He in turn was looking up at her.

"Huh! What gives, Akane?" he asked, perhaps a little more harshly than he intended due to the shock. "What've you been eating to make you grow so fast?"

Akane recovered quickly from the shock. She was taller than most of the boys in her grade this year, after all, so it wasn't really all that strange a thing for her. Their teacher had covered this in health class, and she repeated the lesson now. "People our age go through a growth spurt, Ranma, where they grow really fast for a while. It usually happens earlier for girls than for boys, but on average boys end up taller than girls. Didn't anyone tell you about that?"

"Oh." Ranma thought about this for a moment. "So next year I might have caught up, huh? Okay." Then he shrugged. He wasn't exactly happy about this development, but he didn't see that there was much that he could do about it, so he decided to pretend that it didn't matter. "Hey, you looking forward to your thirteenth birthday? Hard to believe I'll be a teenager in a few months."

Akane smiled. "I know. I can't believe I'll be, either. Daddy says he's going to buy me a set of weights of my very own. No more sharing with the students in the dojo. What do you think you'll get?"

Ranma looked away from her, feeling embarrassed. "I don't expect I'll get anything, except some extra food. That's all that pop's ever given me before on my birthday. Usually with a harder workout than usual, so I don't go thinking I can 'get soft' just 'cause it's my birthday."

Akane lowered her own eyes to the ground, feeling ashamed of her own good fortune in the face of Ranma's poverty, both of family and finances, and having forced him to acknowledge it. Looking for a change of subject, she said, "I don't think we should try to go to my home yet. Everyone's there right now. Kasumi and daddy will both be going out on errands in about another hour; it should be safer then since we'll only have to avoid Nabiki. Not that that's particularly safe, but at least it will only be her instead of her plus the other two. Besides, she'll likely be in her own room, which doesn't have a window looking out over the dojo."

"So whaddya wanna do in the meantime?" Ranma asked quizzically.

Akane thought about this for a couple of minutes. "Well, how about I just show you around Nerima a bit? I could show you the library, and where I go to school, and stuff. We just need to try to avoid being seen by anyone who knows me, though we can probably explain it away if someone does. The biggest problem will be if someone mentions it to Nabiki. She's been getting awful nosy, and she's good at putting together scraps of information she hears from different people."

Ranma conceded that touring Nerima sounded like as good an idea as any, and they did just that. Akane was rather proud of her school, and was a little disappointed that Ranma didn't show more enthusiasm for looking at it. He did like seeing the inside of the library, however. "I wanna thank you for those books, Akane. I mean, they weren't the most exciting things to read, but they helped pass the time when I was stuck in my tent during the snow or rain or stuff, or when I wasn't allowed in the training rooms of the dojo where we were staying. I just need to make sure pop doesn't catch me reading them. He threw one of the books away once when he found me reading it, saying I shouldn't be wasting my time on such stuff." He sighed, a wealth of regret in the sound. "I wish I could get to a place like this more often."

The gratitude in his voice made Akane happy, and she resolved to find some novels to give him in addition to the textbooks this year. Some nice action stories involving martial arts, or historical fiction, perhaps.

Ranma lazily spun a globe under his finger, and asked abstractedly, "You ever imagine visiting another country, Akane? Like maybe China, or America? Do you ever wonder what it would be like?"

Akane looked at the globe, and answered him seriously. "I doubt that I'll ever get the chance. I know that my family, um, seems sort of well off to you." Akane was feeling embarrassed and not meeting his eyes. "But really, we aren't. Not compared to people who can afford to make trips like that. I don't think we'd ever have the money for it."

The boy nodded mutely, embarrassed in turn over the subject of money and the relative financial status of their families. From his point of view, Akane's family was fabulously wealthy; he couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to be able to afford things beyond the Tendo's reach.

Akane finally indicated that it was time to make the attempt to slip into the dojo at her house. Very cautiously they crept inside and down into the basement, then waited anxiously to hear if any alarm were being raised. After several minutes of quiet they started to relax.

"Looks like we're safe," Ranma declared, shrugging off his pack and cloak, and sitting down.

"Looks that way," Akane agreed, removing her own coat and sitting opposite him. After a moment she realized that Ranma had frozen in position, then followed the direction of his gaze to her chest. Blushing furiously, she crossed her arms in front of her, hotly demanding, "What are you staring at?"

The young boy had, of course, been staring in shock at the small but visible curves which were now present, which had not been noticeable the previous year. When Akane crossed her arms, drawing his attention to what he was doing, he immediately looked away, blushing in turn. He was really only vaguely aware of the differences between boys and girls, and that those differences increased as one got older, but he was certainly well enough aware of the general shape of the upper body of adult women. It seemed that his friend really was starting to grow up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," he told her nervously. "I just wasn't expecting ..." He let his voice trail off, not sure how to finish the sentence. Akane merely hmmphed, but let the subject drop.

They soon got over their embarrassment and were chatting like old friends, catching up on the news from the year that had passed. Akane talked about her family, school, friends, and some of the things her father had been teaching her. Ranma talked at greater length about the martial arts techniques he was learning, and some of the places he had seen. Akane found that she was envious that Ranma was learning more martial arts than her, although she wouldn't want to trade her home for his hard life on the road. Ranma experienced almost the mirror image of these sentiments, feeling envious of his friend's home life, but not really wanting to give up any of his martial arts skills in exchange for such a life.

Their friendship nearly suffered a fatal blow that evening when Akane brought him a sample of some alleged fudge she had made that afternoon with Kasumi's help. Ranma eyed the greenish-brown concoction dubiously before popping a piece into his mouth, which he promptly spat out again while choking. They got into a rather tense argument, in which Akane was upset at Ranma's overreaction to one of her first attempts in the kitchen, while Ranma couldn't understand why she had tried to feed him something like that without tasting it herself first. Eventually Akane stormed out and cried herself to sleep, but she tentatively came back down the next morning and the two of them managed a more productive argument about it. Akane ended up promising to test anything she made before trying to give any to him, and Ranma promised not to overreact so melodramatically even if something did taste bad.

The rest of the Tendo family were at home most of the time for the next couple of days, so there was only one brief period on the third day when Akane and Ranma were able to risk sparring together up in the dojo. This session made it clear that Ranma's training was starting to outstrip Akane's, although they had both already guessed that from their conversations. Ranma made use of the opportunity to give Akane some pointers to help with her own training, which she took in greedily.

After the strenuous workout, they sat beside one another on the floor of the dojo, using towels to wipe off their sweat. Ranma stared off into space and said, "If only my pop weren't so bad, I'd almost wish that you could come with us. That way you could get as much training as me."

Akane thought about it and shook her head. "As much as I'd like to be able to keep up with you, I could never put up with the way your father treats you. I'll just have to keep pushing daddy to train me harder. Besides, I doubt that I could stand to leave my family and friends. It's funny though ..." Her voice trailed off.

Ranma scowled fiercely, and flicked some invisible dust off the leg of his gi. "I guess I can understand that. Pop hasn't really given me the chance to make any friends. It seems like whenever I find a possible friend, pop decides that it's time to move on. You're the only long-term friend I've had, and I only see you once a year, and even then only because he doesn't know you exist."

Akane looked at him sympathetically. "I was going to say, it's funny that you wish that I could come with you, because I wish that you could stay here with me. Sometimes when I'm lying in bed before going to sleep, I think of some of the things that your father is probably doing to you, and I just want to cry. You could stay, you know. I bet my daddy wouldn't even mind too much. He might even like it." Sadly, as if to herself, she said, "He'd love to have a son around."

It was Ranma's turn to shake his head. "I don't like the way pop treats me either, but I am learning a lot from him, and I still have a long way to go before I've mastered it all." Ranma turned and gave her a sunny smile. "Maybe in a few years, after I've learned pretty much everything that pop can teach me, I can come back here and take you up on that offer. And then I can teach you everything that I've learned. I bet I'd be a better teacher than my old man is on his best day."

Akane's eyes dipped to the floor. "I think I'd like that, Ranma," she said quietly.

"There's another question I've been meaning to ask," Ranma said, changing the subject. Akane heard a touch of bewilderment in his voice.

"What is it, Ranma?" She looked up at him again.

"Well, it's like this," he began hesitantly. "Whenever I'm staying down there in the basement, I can hear your father's classes, of course. But there don't seem to be as many of them this year. Is my memory playing tricks on me, or is your father not teaching as much this year?"

Akane bit her lip, while thinking over how to respond. She didn't really want to answer this, but Ranma was her friend, and she didn't want to keep things from him. "You ... um, you're right. Daddy hasn't taken on any new students since spring of last year, around the beginning of this school year. Most of the beginning students, and even a lot of the intermediate ones, have quit. I think maybe they thought daddy wasn't giving them enough attention. It's mostly just the advanced students, and some of the intermediate ones, who are left, who are serious about completing their study under daddy. I've tried to talk to him about it, but ..." Akane was having trouble keeping the tears out of her voice. "I don't think he cares anymore."

Ranma felt terrible for his friend, but didn't know what to say. Slowly, he reached over to where her hand was resting on the floor and put his hand on top of hers, hoping it would give her some sort of comfort. Surprisingly, it did seem to help, as Akane quickly calmed down, and they both sat there for a while each lost in their own thoughts. When the sound of the bell at the front gate signaled that one of the family had returned, they jumped up and scrambled for the basement.

The next day it was time for Ranma to leave again. Akane slipped into the dojo before dawn to wake him, and watched as he finished packing, then turned to face the stairs to leave. After a moment of stillness, he turned back to her and, without saying a word, wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. Finally, in a gravelly voice, he said, "I'll see you next year, Akane. Don't stop thinking about me, okay?"

Akane pulled back to arms' length to look him in the eye, with unshed tears glistening in her own, and declared, "Of course not, Ranma. And you'd better keep me in mind, too." Silently, she escorted him up the stairs and out the back gate, and once again watched as he walked out of her sight. ‹I wonder if a day will ever come when I won't have to watch him disappear again?›

* * *

**Author's note:**

Since I foresee the possibility that some people will complain that Akane is too young when she has her first period, I thought that I would add a note up front in reply to this. According to the online sources I checked, the average age of menarche in Japan is twelve, so while I agree that eleven and a half is a bit on the young side, it does not seem to me to be unreasonable.

This is the only time that two separate years of the story will be combined into a single chapter. The remaining years each get essentially their own chapters.

I have added a page to my web site called "Response to Reviews," on which I will publish story comments and replies to selected reviews. This is my way of making responses to reviews which are publicly viewable, since FanFiction only sends replies to the person who wrote the review.


	3. Developments

**Same Time Next Year  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the neko-ken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the neko-ken training and Akane's mother has died.

* * *

**Chapter 3. Developments**

The anniversary of her mother's death had come and gone, and three weeks had passed since. With the arrival of March, Akane's first year in middle school was drawing near its end. She was starting to get anxious that she had not yet heard from Ranma this year, even though she knew that he and his father might be off someplace where it wasn't possible for him to get away. If that were the case, it might be weeks yet before he could come. Despite the fact that the boy had returned each year so far, she had the nagging worry that he might forget her or otherwise just cease his annual visits. Her tension had mounted to the point that she could not help but make a dash for the telephone every time that it rang, and her family was starting to notice.

She was thinking about this as she heard the telephone ring yet again, causing her to leap up instantly from the table in the family room where she was working on an assignment. Fortunately, everyone else was out at the moment, but even knowing that no one else was home to get to it first did not prevent her from running to grab the telephone receiver before the second ring had finished.

"Hello? This is Akane Tendo," she said breathlessly, the receiver held in an iron grip, waiting to identify the caller.

"Hi, Akane, it's me," came the voice she had been hoping to hear. "Sorry that I'm running late this year, but I only just got out of the hospital in Kyoto a couple of days ago."

"The hospital?" she squeaked. "What happened?"

"Oh, my baka pop, naturally. A training technique that went wrong. So how soon before you can meet me at the temple?"

Akane smiled, happy about her next words. "Actually, I'm alone at home for the next couple of hours. You could just come right here, for once."

Ranma's voice sounded like he was smiling as well. "Will do. I'll see you in a few minutes. Good-bye."

"Good-bye, Ranma." Akane hung up the telephone, then spent the next few minutes rushing around. Her homework was packed up and dumped in her room, and she grabbed some food and other supplies to take down into the dojo basement. Ten minutes later she was standing at the back gate looking anxiously down the street, and her face lit when she saw the pigtailed boy turn the corner walking toward her.

Her expression changed to one of worry as she noticed his left sleeve pulled back from a cast on his arm, and the black eye he was sporting. He also seemed to be walking a little tentatively, as if he were trying not to limp. Unable to hold back any longer, she ran up to meet him, greeting him with a hug, then letting go immediately on his involuntary grunt of pain.

"Ranma, what happened to you?" she demanded, concern making her sound angry.

"Eh, like I said, a training accident," he answered dismissively, shrugging his shoulders. "Pop and I were sparring one night up in some skeleton of a building being constructed in Kyoto. You know the sort of thing, just a bunch of girders and stuff at the time. Anyway, pop landed a good one and I missed my footing and fell a couple of stories. Got banged up pretty good. Broke my arm, cracked a rib, sprained an ankle. Lots of bruises too. Less than I deserved, probably."

"The black eye, too?" Akane asked sympathetically. "You're lucky you didn't lose your eye if you hit your face in a fall like that."

Ranma turned away, embarrassed, unable to look at her. "Well, uh, actually, pop did that afterward. He was mad at me for falling."

Akane stopped, and Ranma walked on a couple of steps further before he realized that he had left her behind. He looked back quizzically, and saw her standing there, looking down at the road with her eyes hidden behind her bangs, her fists clenching and unclenching. Her mouth seemed to be moving; was she counting? He imagined that he could almost see the steam rising from her.

Ranma walked back, his expression concerned. "Hey! Are you all right?" he inquired.

Akane looked up, and the boy took a step backward on seeing the rage in her eyes. "Ranma, I swear, if I ever meet your father I may just kill him!" Almost at once, though, the rage was replaced by a look of sincere concern, and her voice turned pleading. "Won't you please consider leaving him? One of these days he's going to get you killed, either by accident or sheer idiocy, and I ... I don't want that to happen. Please?"

Ranma reached out and rested his right hand on her shoulder, looking her in the eye, and he spoke with all the confidence of the young and immortal. "Akane, I'll be all right, I promise. I'm not gonna let him get me killed, and in the meantime I'm learning an awful lot." His voice became gleeful. "Wait 'til I show you some of the new moves I've learned."

Akane sighed, but promised herself to renew the argument again before he left. They went in through the gate and stored his pack in the basement. Then they went up into the dojo to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by her family's absence.

Ranma took a moment before they started for a good look at his friend, noticing changes from the previous year. A little taller, a little more curved. She seemed to be growing her hair longer. Remembering last year, he remarked, "Hey, Akane, have you noticed? You're not taller than me anymore."

Akane snorted, shaking her head in mock disgust. "Honestly! Did it bother you that much?"

Ranma hung his head. "Well, yeah, kinda, a little," he admitted, a tad sheepishly. Bouncing back, he looked up again. "What's with the hair? It wasn't that long before, was it?"

Akane reached up a hand to her head, and asked shyly, "Do you like it? My sister Kasumi decided to grow her hair long, and it looks really lovely, so I thought I'd try it too. What do you think?" She looked at him hopefully, not admitting even to herself that she wanted Ranma to think she was attractive. The real truth was that Akane had noticed how much the new doctor appreciated her oldest sister's longer locks, and had come to the conclusion that men liked long hair better.

One of the many things which Ranma's father had neglected to teach him was how to politely tell a female what she wanted to hear, instead of being bluntly honest. "To tell the truth, I like it better short. You don't look right like this."

Akane was crestfallen, but turned away to try to hide it. "Oh. I ... I just thought that, maybe, it would look nice if it were longer. I guess it suits Kasumi better than me."

Now Ranma knew he was pretty clueless when it came to other people's feelings, mostly from lack of experience. On the road, it was just him and his pop, and it was always pretty clear what the old man was feeling. Still, even he couldn't miss the pain in his friend's voice, and he couldn't help knowing that he was responsible, even if he wasn't quite sure how.

"Hey, Akane, I'm sorry. I think I didn't say that in the best possible way. Your hair does look good. It even looks sorta, I dunno, _pretty_."

The boy started to sweat. He felt like he was heading out to sea here, without a map. But she was a girl, right? Girls were supposed to want to be pretty, right? Except she wasn't 'just' a girl. She was Akane!

"I just don't think it's quite the right look for you. A little too girly or something, in the frilly sense, if you get what I'm trying to say. You're a martial artist, and you look your best when you look, um, athletic, and energetic, and stuff. The shorter hair fits in with that. I just think you looked even _better_ with your hair the way it used to be." Looking at her sideways, he couldn't begin to guess how she was taking this.

"I just think ... you should try to look good for what suits Akane, not good for what suits Kasumi, you know?"

Akane looked a bit dubious at the start of this speech, but she heard the sincerity in his voice and was smiling again by the time he finished. "Thanks, Ranma," she responded demurely, "though I think we should take some time during this visit to discuss the meaning of the word 'tact'."

"Uh ... what's it mean?" the boy asked, puzzled.

Akane gave a mixture of a sigh and a chuckle, shaking her head. "Never mind, we'll talk about it later. We can save long discussions for when we're hiding down in the basement. Right now, we're wasting precious time. We have the place to ourselves, so let's _do_ something."

"Right." Ranma nodded his head in agreement. Then he held out his left arm, drawing her attention back to the cast. "Unfortunately, I'm not in any shape to spar with you this time. But you can show me what you've learned, and maybe I can give you some pointers, if you like."

They did as he suggested, Akane demonstrating some of the katas and techniques she'd been practicing lately, with Ranma offering critique, correction and advice. However, over the course of the next hour he experienced a slowly growing sense of confusion. Finally he signaled for a pause, and paced back and forth for a couple of minutes. When he turned to her to speak, it was clear that he was nervous about what he had to say.

"Akane, first off, I want to say that you are good. So, I hope you won't take this the wrong way. You've learned a lot over the last year, but not as much as I would have expected."

Despite the promise of his opening words, Akane was hurt by what had followed. "You mean because I haven't learned as much new stuff as you have? I don't have an insane man drilling me several hours a day every day without letup!"

"_No_! I don't mean that. I know your dad isn't as crazy as mine. But, for example ... the stuff I pointed out about how to adjust the way you move in your kata to compensate for your current height. Hasn't anyone been paying attention to the fact that you've grown over the last year?" He could see the pain blossoming in her eyes, the sight making him feel helpless. Suddenly, the hair thing seemed to assume greater significance. "Is there something you want to tell me about? Is martial arts starting to become more of a hobby than a lifestyle to you? You can be honest with me, I won't hold it against you even if it's true."

Akane couldn't help herself, she started crying, and quickly turned around so that her friend couldn't see her face while she tried to wrestle her feelings back under control. It proved more difficult than she expected, and after a moment she felt Ranma's hands on her upper arms. Akane realized that he was worried about her, but that he didn't know what to say. A wall suddenly crumbled that she hadn't even known was there, and she spun around and grabbed hold of the front of his shirt while she started sobbing into his shoulder. Ranma looked around a little wildly, then tentatively put a hand on her back, holding her, and tried to make noises which he hoped sounded soothing.

After what seemed like an eternity to Ranma, Akane's sobs slowed down into sniffles, until she pulled back from him and wiped furiously at her face with her sleeves. She slipped down to sit on the floor, exhausted by the release of a couple of years of pain, grief and uncertainty all at one time. Ranma joined her, still unsure of what to do or say. Akane gave him a very crooked grin, and in a slightly broken voice said, "I'm sorry about that, Ranma. I ... I don't know what got into me. I just ..." She sniffed, hard. "My sisters know that martial arts is important to me, but they can't truly understand how important, not like you can."

"Huh? What do you mean?" he asked, sounding confused. "What do your sisters have to do with it?"

Looking down at her feet, her voice a trifle hoarse, she softly said, "There hasn't been anyone I could talk to about it. Not even Kasumi. I mean, she would have made soothing noises, but she wouldn't have truly understood what was wrong. I've been acting like everything is okay ... but it isn't."

She gave a little hiccup and went on. "The problem is that I do look on the art as a lifestyle, not just a hobby. But daddy ..." Pain twisted in her voice, and she continued in a whisper. "Daddy doesn't have any students anymore, other than me. The last of them quit in disgust. And he won't even train with me much now. Lately, I can only get him to work with me for a few hours on Sunday, just once a week. I still make sure to practice every day, but ... I have to do it by myself." Fresh tears welled in her eyes. "I guess I haven't let myself realize how much his lack of attention hurt. I'm sorry. This is so unfair to you." She pulled her knees up and hugged them tight, carefully not looking at him. "I wouldn't blame you if you decided not to come around anymore, the way I'm behaving."

Ranma reached over and brushed a few strands of hair away from her eye, some instinct telling him such was a comforting gesture. "I'm real sorry to hear that, Akane. Our fathers are quite a pair, aren't they? My pop teaching at a level of intensity that's just nuts, and your father not wanting to teach at all." He sighed, dropping his eyes, then looked up again, determination firming his lips. "Akane, last year I suggested that after I've learned what pop can teach me, I could leave him and come here to stay, and teach you everything I learned. If you want, I'll make that a promise, and I never break my promises." ‹Not like pop,› he thought to himself.

Akane looked up, new hope dawning in her eyes. She still wished that she could talk him into leaving his father now, but this was better than nothing. And this offered a real opportunity to continue learning martial arts to the degree that she desired, even if it might mean having to wait a few years first. "How long, Ranma? Can you tell me how long I'll have to wait?"

Ranma thought it over. "A couple of years should be enough, I think. By that time we'll be nearly sixteen and," he chuckled, "that seems like a good age to settle down. I'll probably be getting tired of being constantly on the move by then. So, okay ..." Ranma took a deep breath. "I promise that in a couple of years, by the summer of that year at the latest, I'll leave my pop and come here, to stay. If your father will let me, anyway. And I'll teach you everything I've learned - or, at least, what you're willing to learn. I'm pretty sure you won't want to learn the neko-ken, for instance."

Akane had to smile at that. "No, I don't think I really want to be thrown into a pit of starving cats, wrapped in fish sausage."

Ranma smiled as well. "In the meantime, there's probably a lot of stuff I can tell you or show you to work on, in order to get as much benefit as you can out of practicing alone. If you're feeling up to it, we should get started on that now. It probably won't be long before someone comes home."

Akane acknowledged this with a nod, they both stood, and she listened intently as Ranma began to explain.

* * *

The next day the two teenagers were down in the basement, discussing some points of Japanese history which Akane had been studying in school. From there the conversation moved into school gossip, and a recent scandal about one of the teachers in the next grade who had resigned in shame after discovering she was pregnant, while her husband had been on an extended stay in Europe for his company.

Ranma just stared at her blankly. "So what was so scandalous? Wouldn't her husband be happy they were gonna have a kid? Of course, I guess he'd want to come home for it."

Akane pursed her lips. "Don't you get it, Ranma? Her husband hasn't been home in half a year, and the way I heard it, she was about four months pregnant."

Ranma shrugged, baffled. "So?"

"So they hadn't been _together_, Raaanmaa." She drew his name out with an exasperated tone. "He wasn't the father."

Ranma's look of bafflement grew. "But it's going to be their baby, isn't it? Why wouldn't he be the father?"

Now it was Akane's turn to stare. "Ranma? You do know where babies come from, don't you? Didn't they do a class about that while you were attending school last year? Or maybe your father, um, gave you the _talk_?"

Ranma shook his head, completely and sincerely puzzled. "Uh, no, I got no idea what you're talking about. I, uh, miss a lot of school, the way we move around. I told you those books you gave me were the only reason I've been able to keep up."

Akane contemplated the image of herself explaining the facts of life to Ranma, and blushed bright red. ‹Uh uh, no way,› she told herself. Still, she couldn't in good conscience leave him in ignorance. She thought she remembered where the book was that Kasumi had given her to read, a couple of years ago, when her sister had explained these things to her. It was written for girls, but if she remembered correctly, it did cover everything pretty thoroughly, if a bit clinically. "Um, we've got a book that might help explain matters. I'll bring it to you later on." She firmly turned the conversation back to history.

True to her word, Akane snuck the book out to him after supper, and Ranma spent the evening hours reading it by flashlight. The next day started out rather awkwardly, as Ranma found it all but impossible to look directly at his friend. He'd known that she was growing into a young woman, but now he knew exactly what that meant. Akane was unnerved as well, as she knew what Ranma was thinking about each time he gave her one of those sidelong glances. Still, they both did their best to ignore the resultant awkwardness in order to concentrate on martial arts conversation and "safe" subjects. By the time Akane had to return to the house to rejoin her family, things were almost back to normal between them.

But climbing into bed that night, Akane found her thoughts turning once more to Ranma and the way he had kept looking at her. She felt a slightly hollow, fluttery feeling inside at the memory. It was the first time he had seen her not just as a girl, but as someone who would one day be a woman. This in turn caused her to think about the fact that someday Ranma was going to be a man. A hot flush filled her from head to toe as she unaccountably found herself wondering what it would feel like to kiss him. She had a hard time falling asleep that night, and when she did, her dreams were filled with images of the pigtailed boy.

She wasn't the only one having difficulty sleeping that night. Ranma had been very embarrassed by the subject matter of the book Akane had given him to read, and he had a little trouble coming to grips with the idea that men and women did those sorts of things. On the other hand, things that he'd been overhearing for years suddenly made a lot more sense in view of this new information. He had been seeing Akane in a new light all day long, and it made him feel weird. He just hoped that she hadn't noticed, but it hadn't been easy to control. He wasn't quite sure what he had felt when he looked at her, except that it had made him feel awkward, and hot, and shaky. He spent a couple of hours after midnight silently running through a kata in the dark dojo over and over again, seeking fruitlessly for a semblance of calm.

The next day the two of them had the place to themselves again, and they put it to good use up in the dojo. Most of the training went very well, but as Ranma showed Akane the things he wanted her to practice while he was gone, he had to put his hands on her from time to time to correct her position or to show her the way he wanted her to move. This was all innocent enough, mostly involving her arms and legs, but each time he grew more nervous and tentative about it, and eventually began to stutter his explanations. He also noticed that Akane was starting to blush each time his hands came into contact with her. After a couple of hours they took a break and collapsed to the floor.

Akane sat there, her hair plastered to her head with sweat, and wondered what she could say to Ranma to get him to start behaving naturally again. She understood that he had been feeling flustered being around a girl after reading that book, but thought he had pretty much recovered by last night. Yet now he was acting increasingly jittery as their practice session went on, and this in turn was causing her to react in ways she didn't quite understand. Working up her determination to ask him about it, she turned to him, only to find Ranma turning his head to look at her at the same moment, and their eyes locked together. The hesitant question which emerged from her mouth was as much of a surprise to her as it was to him. "Ranma, do you ... like me?"

‹Oh my God,› the girl thought in panic. ‹Why did I ask him _that_?› She could _feel_ her face turning red, but was unable to look away from him. Instead, it was Ranma who broke the contact, his eyes dropping to look at the floor.

"I, uh ..." Ranma had _no_ idea what to say next. ‹Why did she ask me that? She's my friend, ain't she? But ... she means more than that. Does she want me to like her? Do I like her, as more than a friend? Is that why I'm acting so odd?› "Um, well, we're friends, and, uh ..." The boy was starting to feel panicked.

Akane interrupted him hurriedly. She wasn't really ready to hear his answer, whatever it might be. "I'm, uh, sorry, Ranma. I don't know why I asked that. I shouldn't have. Can we get back to training? I think I've almost got that flying kick." Ranma jumped up gratefully, helped Akane to her feet, and they returned to the comfortable and well understood setting of martial arts.

When Akane showed up in the basement after dinner, Ranma was surprised to see that her hair was short again. When he didn't say anything, but just sat there staring at her, she brushed her hand across the back of her head, asking, "Like it? I decided you were right, short suits my life better after all." She bit her lower lip, waiting for his response.

"Um, yeah, I do. Ah, it looks ... you look a lot better like this," he answered her. "But I thought you liked it long."

Akane pouted. "Well, I was thinking about what you said the first day. Besides, I thought that daddy might think I wasn't serious about martial arts if I look too much like a girl. So I asked Kasumi to cut it for me. I think it turned out pretty good."

The boy nodded. "It did. You look great! Really." Akane was satisfied, and knelt to show him the books she had brought for him to take this year, and they spent some time discussing them before she went back in.

Ranma spent one last night in the dojo's basement, and the next morning's dawn found him standing outside the back gate, his large pack on his back. He and Akane were looking at each other, neither one wanting to say good-bye, but neither were they entirely sure what they did want. They moved together for a parting hug, and held each other fiercely, looking down the street over the other's shoulder. They pulled their heads back before letting go, and looked into each other's eyes from a distance of mere centimeters. Although there did not appear to be any conscious decision behind it, Ranma's head slowly moved forward, and Akane's lips opened slightly. In a moment which bewildered, frightened, and electrified both of them, their lips pressed together briefly before pulling back to share the wonder that they had dared such a thing.

They moved apart quickly in embarrassment, and Ranma walked backward down the street, keeping his eyes on her and waving good-bye, while Akane raised a hand and touched her fingers tentatively to her mouth. All too soon, Ranma reached the corner where he always disappeared from her sight. He hesitated, and they stared at one another wordlessly, as if they were trying to memorize the other's appearance. Then necessity pulled at the boy, and he slipped out of sight for another year.

* * *

A couple of months later, when Akane turned fourteen, she was still thinking about that kiss. She wished that Ranma could be there at her party with her other friends. At that particular moment, the boy in question was standing in an icy mountain stream, naked, and most of his thoughts were on his father who was sitting warm and dry on the bank "observing" Ranma's endurance training. He did, however, recall that this day was Akane's birthday, and wished that he could be in Nerima to celebrate with her. His own fourteenth birthday had passed a couple of weeks previously, with nothing special to mark it. The freezing water faded into the background of his consciousness as he wondered, if he were in Nerima to share her birthday, would Akane let him kiss her again?

Akane continued working out on her own, trying to follow the training program Ranma had outlined for her. In particular, he had emphasized the need to increase her speed and improve her balance. It became a common sight in the neighborhood to see her leaping up on top of brick walls, running along them, on her way to and from school and while she was out on errands. On those days when she was alone in the dojo, she practiced katas which her father had never shown her.

As the months passed, both teenagers frequently found their thoughts turning to the other, and the memory of their parting kiss was often taken out, contemplated, and put away again, leaving a warm glow behind. Whenever either experienced a day which was in any way different or special, be it the Tendo's trip to the beach, Ranma's arrival at a new dojo, or a holiday such as Christmas or New Year's, they would find themselves wishing that the other could be there to share it.

The days, weeks and months rushed by, and suddenly it was February again, with Ranma and his father camped in sight of Mount Fuji. Ranma's scheme to get an entire case of sake for his father paid off, and the man passed out in his tent. Ranma wrote a brief note that basically explained nothing except that he was gone and would come back, hefted his pack, and headed north for Tokyo.


	4. Discovery

**Same Time Next Year  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the neko-ken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the neko-ken training and Akane's mother has died.

* * *

**Chapter 4. Discovery**

The telephone rang as dinner was coming to an end, just as Akane was finishing her tea. Putting her cup down, she rose gracefully to her feet, saying, "I'm done. I'll get it." She stepped out of the family room and walked down the hall, turning the corner to reach the telephone. She picked it up on the fourth ring. "Hello? This is the Tendo residence, Akane Tendo speaking."

"Hey, Akane! It's me, Ranma. I just got into town. I managed to give my dad the slip." He sniggered evilly. "Given how much sake pop had to drink last night, he may still be out cold. Can we meet?"

Akane smiled happily. "Sure, Yuka, I'll meet you there!" She hung up the telephone and started exchanging her slippers for her outdoor shoes as Nabiki stepped out into the front hall.

"Who was that, Akane?" Nabiki asked in a tone of speculative interest, on the lookout as always for moneymaking opportunities.

Akane regarded her older sister out of the corner of her eye, as she continued tying her shoe. "That was Yuka. She wants me to meet her at the park."

Nabiki looked reflective, sensing that Akane was lying, but not why. With a brilliant smile, she suggested, "I wouldn't mind a walk in the park myself. Wait a moment, and I'll join you."

The younger sister felt a momentary sense of panic then, thinking quickly, smiled back at Nabiki. "No time, gotta run," she replied, suiting action to words. Akane took off at a fast clip which her less athletic sister could never hope to match.

"Hey, wait! Which park are you going to?" Akane heard Nabiki's voice calling out behind. Naturally, Akane ignored this question, and soon turned her feet toward the temple where Ranma would be waiting. As she ran down one street, she passed a shop with some hearts in the window. This reminded her that today was Valentine's Day, and as the traditions of the day recalled themselves to her mind, she came to a stop and looked back at the store. Making up her mind, she went inside, bought some chocolate, then took off running again.

She stopped just outside the gate of the temple, and patted her short hair into place, not wanting to look like she had been running even if she had. She checked her coat and jeans, took a deep breath, and walked through the gate. There was no delay in recognition, their eyes lit simultaneously, and Akane felt her heart figuratively leap in her chest. There was no need for her to run to him, as Ranma ran up to her, and swept her into an embrace. "God, it's good to see you, Akane!"

"It's great to see you, too, Ranma," she responded softly. Looking up into his eyes, she realized that he was now taller than her, not by much, perhaps two or three centimeters, but still taller. He had always been whipcord lean, but now he was starting to take on the harder, more solid, look of the young man he was becoming. The firm muscles of his arms wrapped around her were no longer merely strong, but now stretched his sleeves tightly. Akane suddenly found herself out of breath, although she had not been breathing hard at the end of her run.

For his part, Ranma looked at the girl, no, the young woman, in his arms, and could sense how she had grown since the previous year. Her face was less childlike, more pretty, and her smile was simply dazzling. Her body in his arms paradoxically felt both soft and athletically firm at the same time. He tightened his hold reflexively and felt a gallant response beginning as a result of her close proximity. He released her quickly, growing red with embarrassment, and hoping that she hadn't noticed. He didn't want her to think he was as big a jerk as his old man.

"So, ah, won't be long before we're fifteen, eh?" Ranma said, trying to divert her attention from his potentially awkward lapse. He also needed to take his own mind off of the feelings which had washed over him.

"Not long at all. About two and a half months for you, and three for me," Akane replied quickly, seizing gratefully on the subject that was so safe and nonpersonal. She had never experienced anything quite like the rush of sensations which had threatened to overwhelm her. "I expect that I'll have a small party with some of my close friends, like last year."

"Wish I could be there," Ranma told her offhandedly, as they went inside the temple where it was warmer. "I'm just about fed up with pop and his stupid ideas, except that he's mentioned a couple of places he's planning to take me this coming year that I really wouldn't want to miss out on."

Akane gave him a critical once over as they sat on a bench. "No broken bones or black eyes this time? Any other injuries you want to tell me about? Or that you don't?"

Ranma chuckled. It felt surprisingly good to have someone fussing over him like that. "Nothing major. A couple of new scars from training accidents. Broke one of my fingers pretty nastily back around October, but amazingly enough it wasn't pop's fault for once. My own stupidity. He still comes up with plenty of idiotic ideas for training, and I have gotten hurt doing some of them, but he's mostly laid off hitting me in punishment since I started being able to hit back just as hard. He usually contents himself with insults these days, though he's got a real talent for making them as unpleasant as possible. How about you?"

Akane sighed, more for Ranma than for herself. "Well, I've been trying to keep up with the training exercises you suggested, and I think I've been doing pretty well. I'm still working out with daddy once a week, though it's gotten so much harder to get him to do it. It's awfully sad the way he's let himself go; I think that I could probably take him in a fair fight now, although I bet he could still win an _unfair_ one."

Ranma laughed outright at that. "I know what you mean. There _is_ something to be said for experience, isn't there? I feel like I'm starting to catch up to my pop most ways, but he always seems able to come up with some trick that he's never shown me before. It helps to remind me that no matter how much of a fool he is in other things, he's still a pretty good martial artist."

Akane looked at him fondly, and then remembered what she had in her pocket. Nervously, she pulled out the small box of chocolate. Her words, when they came, sounded like they were tripping over her tongue. "Um, Ranma, you know, it is, uh, Valentine's Day and, um, well, here!" Without looking in his direction, she thrust her hand toward him, and Ranma gingerly took the package from her. He turned it around nervously, looking it over.

"Chocolate?" Ranma asked. Akane nodded, and he contemplated the package again. Something half-forgotten was tickling at the back of his mind. Something about Valentine's Day and chocolate. His eyes narrowed as he tried to call it to the forefront of his memory, then widened when he remembered. Girls were supposed to give chocolate to boys they liked on that day. "Gee, um, thanks Akane! Thank you. Uh, this is great." He opened it and took a bite, his eyes closing in pleasure at a luxury he never received from his father.

Ranma opened his eyes again and looked at the girl beside him. "So does this mean that you, uh, ... like me?" He whispered the last couple of words.

Akane bent her head down, hiding her eyes behind her bangs. She hadn't considered the possibility that he might ask this, or what she would answer if he did. "No fair, Ranma! I asked first!" She paused. "Even if it was a year ago. You never did answer, remember?" That event, like every moment they had spent together, seemed to be engraved in her memory.

Ranma stared at her blankly, long enough for her to feel a little hurt, and then laughed weakly, finally recalling the incident in question. "Yeah, I do remember. You really surprised me when you asked me that. But, um ..." He turned a little, unable to look directly at her. "Yeah, I do. Like you, that is." Akane's hand was resting on the bench between them; he reached out and took hold of it.

Akane looked down at their linked hands, and then up at the boy beside her. She whispered, "I like you, too, Ranma."

The boy turned his head back around to face her again, smiling, pleased beyond description that she seemed to share his feelings. Tentatively he leaned toward her, and she just as timidly tilted her face up to meet him. Gently their lips brushed together, and the world around them dimmed to insignificance. The kiss did not last very long, both were still too shy for that, but this only made it all the more intense and real.

They sat and talked for a while, sharing stories with each other about things which had occurred in the past year, until full darkness had fallen outside. When Akane noticed this, she was surprised. It hadn't seemed that long since she had arrived. She pointed the time out to Ranma with the observation that it was probably safe to try to sneak him inside now. They headed back to her house and successfully got Ranma down into the dojo basement. Akane promised that she'd bring him some supplies before she left for school in the morning.

After school the next day, Kasumi was surprised to find that a block of tofu she distinctly remembered seeing before leaving that morning, and had been planning to use for dinner, was missing from the refrigerator. As their father had left for the day even before herself, that meant either Akane or Nabiki must have taken it. The high school let out before the middle school and her two sisters were not yet home, which meant that if one of them had taken it, it would have had to have been before they left for school. Why would either of them have wanted an entire block of tofu so soon after breakfast? Feeling puzzled but seeing no means to a quick answer, she continued her dinner preparations, resolving to keep her eyes open.

Akane usually walked to and from school with Nabiki, but this day, she made the excuse of needing to visit the library to do some research, and took off without her older sister. Running quickly, she got home well before Nabiki, going around to the back gate and sneaking down into the basement of the dojo, all without anyone seeing her. She and Ranma talked for about an hour, discussing the training she had been doing among other things.

From somewhere outside came the sound of the front gate slamming and they heard Nabiki calling to Kasumi. The interruption reminded them both that time was getting on. Akane knelt beside Ranma and looked at him, licking her dry lips, not wanting to say good-bye yet. He leaned slightly forward, his lips barely brushing hers. They heard Nabiki calling again, her voice petulant with annoyance. With a whispered promise that she would see him again as soon as possible, the girl ran up the stairs, snuck out the back gate, then went around to the front gate and came in openly.

As soon as she got into the house, Nabiki pounced on her, demanding to know where she'd been. Apparently, Kasumi wanted to speak to both of them, and Nabiki had walked all of the way to the library and back looking for Akane. As a result, she was not in the happiest of moods, and was not made happier when Akane told her that she had detoured for a walk through one of the parks on her way home from the library.

What Kasumi wanted was to ask them about the missing tofu. Both Akane and Nabiki denied having anything to do with the disappearance, protesting their innocence. Kasumi finally felt obliged to drop the matter, as she was getting nowhere. Akane walked away looking outwardly calm, but feeling fairly nervous inside. She was concerned about the suspicious way that Nabiki was looking at her.

After dinner, while Akane was helping with the dishes, Kasumi noticed her humming happily to herself and scarcely paying attention when anyone spoke to her. While Akane was a generally cheerful person, this seemed out of character. Her little sister was practically walking on air! She didn't see how this could have anything to do with the missing tofu, but it was definitely unusual behavior, and so she tucked it away to think on further. Then, after the dishes were done, Akane disappeared again, saying something about meeting Yuka and Sayuri as she went out the door.

An unusual impulse came over Kasumi, one which she tried to fight down, but her curiosity was too aroused. Feeling horribly guilty about spying on her sister, she called over to Yuka's house to ask where the girls had gone. Yuka herself answered the phone, and when Kasumi asked if she could speak to Akane, replied in some puzzlement that her friend wasn't there. Kasumi apologized, explaining that she must have misunderstood, and hung up the telephone thoughtfully.

‹What are you up to, little sister?› Kasumi asked herself. ‹The obvious answer is that she has a boyfriend. I suppose she might be worried that daddy would make a fuss. He hates anything which reminds him that we are growing up. That might be reason enough for her to sneak around and hide it from us. And Akane is a sensible, intelligent girl; she wouldn't be doing anything improper. Would she? No, she's too responsible for that.›

‹Of course, it might not be a boyfriend at all. Maybe she's found another sensei to teach her. She has been getting very frustrated with daddy for not spending much time training with her, but she wouldn't want to hurt his feelings by letting him know she is training with someone else.› Kasumi sighed unhappily. ‹Somehow, I'm going to have to try to get the truth out of her. But I need to be careful. I don't want to lose her trust.›

When Akane returned home, Kasumi noted how happy her sister looked, smiling brightly. Even Nabiki's teasing didn't annoy her. She watched all evening, waiting for an opening, although still unsure what she would say if she found one. By the time they all went to bed that night, Kasumi still hadn't thought of a way to approach the subject.

The next day was Saturday, and Kasumi made her weekly trip to the market. Nabiki headed off on some moneymaking scheme. She also intended to check with some people she knew concerning the missing tofu; she had a vague idea that Akane might have taken it for something at school. It was hard to imagine what her sister could have wanted it for, but Akane had avoided walking to school with her that day, and Nabiki knew very well that she hadn't taken the tofu herself.

Their father also went out, planning to meet some friends, and saying something about a shogi tournament. Akane truthfully told everyone that she was going to stay home and practice in the dojo. She merely neglected to inform them that she would not be alone.

Akane and Ranma worked up a good sweat while training. When they were done, and since they had the house to themselves, Akane invited him in to bathe, while she stood guard outside in case anyone returned unexpectedly. Afterward, they went down to the dojo basement together, and started discussing some of the schoolbooks Akane had picked up for him for the next year. While doing so, meaning it in the way of thanks, Ranma leaned over and kissed her. A few minutes later, she returned the favor, pressing her lips to his a little more firmly and holding it a little longer. When they pulled apart, feeling an odd sense of reluctance at breaking the kiss, Ranma's hand remained on Akane's shoulder. It migrated down her back, then back up to her neck, causing her to turn slightly toward him, leaning. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to meet her halfway.

Before too long the books were forgotten. Akane found herself slipping further back until she was lying down, Ranma supporting his weight on his elbow above her to one side. Her hands seemed to have a life of their own, exploring under his shirt, delighting in the feel of his hard-muscled back. When Ranma's hand found the bottom hem of her loose shirt and his fingertips brushed the skin of her stomach, she could not help but gasp and arch her back slightly. She moaned in pleasure as his hand lightly caressed her flesh, wanting more.

"_What_ is going on down here?"

Kasumi's voice crackled with indignation, almost unrecognizable, and the two teenagers sprang guiltily apart as though yanked in opposite directions. Both faces turned beet red, and they looked everywhere but at each other or at Kasumi, who was glaring down at them from the stairs. Her lips were compressed into an incredibly thin line.

"Akane, I cannot _believe_ that you would behave like this! I come home from the market, hoping to talk to you privately, and I find you like this! When I came into the dojo and heard the moaning from down here, I thought some animal must be trapped in the basement. Then I come down the stairs to find you ... _cavorting_ ... with some strange boy! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Akane looked down at her feet, mortified, unable to answer at first. She wanted to protest that Ranma was no stranger, that she had known him for four years. On the other hand, she was guiltily aware that Kasumi's accusation was well-founded, their behavior had been out of line. Akane had always snorted contemptuously at girls who got themselves into trouble, and then protested afterward that they had been unable to control themselves. She made a silent and profound apology to all of those nameless girls, but that did nothing to provide her with an answer to give her older sister.

"I ... I g-guess it's my f-fault," Ranma stuttered, unable to look the older girl in the face. "I shoulda had b-better control, but I just wasn't thinking too clearly. I'd never wanna do anything to hurt Akane, she means too much to me. You gotta understand, I'd never hurt her."

Kasumi regarded the boy coolly, but she heard the sincerity in his voice and the glitter of anger began to fade from her eyes. "I am glad to hear it," she told him frostily. "However, I think that you had better leave and go home now. My sister and I need to talk."

Ranma turned an agonized glance in Akane's direction, and she in turn finally found her voice. "No, Kasumi! He only got here! I only see him once a year; please don't make him go yet."

Kasumi's eyes widened in surprise. ‹What is going on here?› Coming to a decision, she told them, "I think that you had better explain what you are talking about. Come with me to the kitchen. The others won't be back for a while and we may speak there much more comfortably." She turned and mounted the stairs, confident the other two would follow her. Still avoiding each other's eyes, they did.

In the kitchen, Kasumi put a plate of cookies on the table, and made some tea. Then they all sat around the table, and Kasumi pointedly suggested to Akane, "Perhaps you could begin with introductions."

Akane nodded. "Ranma, this is my oldest sister, Kasumi Tendo. Kasumi, may I introduce you to my, um, friend, Ranma Saotome."

Ranma stood and bowed politely. "Akane has told me so much about you."

Kasumi regarded him with little favor. "I wish I could say the same. I haven't been told anything about you."

Akane winced and spoke up. "Ummm ... actually, you might remember his name from a few years back. The boy that father's friend was looking for? The one who ran away while training in a martial arts technique and was missing for a few days before he showed up again? He was, um, here the entire time."

Kasumi's eyes narrowed slightly and after a few minutes, she gave a cool nod. Akane and Ranma took turns explaining how they had met, what Ranma's father was really like, and how Ranma had come to visit each year since then. It wasn't long before Kasumi's eyes were glittering with anger again, this time over the thought of Genma Saotome's treatment of his son.

Kasumi shook her head resignedly over the clandestine meetings which had been occurring, year after year, right under her nose with her never getting a whiff of a hint until this year. It was quite clear to her that her youngest sister was smitten with the admittedly handsome boy, and he with her, but it was not yet clear whether this was simply a youthful crush or something more serious. In any event, the two were much too young to be allowed to run free without supervision.

The two younger teenagers sat silent and anxious, watching as Kasumi poured a little more tea into her cup, then sat staring into it, looking for answers in its depths. Finally she looked up, and pronounced her judgment. "Very well, I will allow Saotome-kun to complete the term of his planned visit, without revealing your secret. I will also seek to get father and Nabiki out of the house as much as possible during that time. In return for these considerations, the two of you will promise me that you will not meet unless I am present to chaperon, except during those times when you are in the dojo, the _upper_ part, for martial arts training."

Akane and Ranma both nodded solemnly. Kasumi took a deep breath, and continued. "I also agree with Akane that it is in Saotome-kun's best interest to leave his father, and since his family is apparently known to our father, at least from some point in the past, that honor suggests that we should help him to find a home. Perhaps he could even stay with us for a time. I say this with considerable reluctance, considering the dishonorable manner in which the two of you were carrying on. If you wish my assistance in these matters, then I must have your promises that you will behave appropriately in the future. Is that clear?" More nods ensued. She addressed Ranma pointedly. "Now, do I understand that you do _not_ plan to leave your father at this time?"

Ranma answered her sheepishly, feeling guilty for the answer he gave and wondering why. "That's right. Martial arts is, well, it's my life, I guess. I need to be a master, and I feel like there's a little more I have to learn first. I guess I don't really like pop much, but I have learned a lot from him, and I'm not finished yet. Next year, that'll be soon enough. I mean, he isn't able to force me to do things so much, anymore. What could he manage to do to me in just one more year?"

At that point they all heard the front door open, and Ranma tore out of the room, headed for the dojo. Soun Tendo walked into the kitchen, greeting his daughters. "Hello, father," Kasumi smiled at him, rising and kissing his cheek. "Akane, dear, don't you have homework to do?" The younger girl nodded, and went up to her room. A little later, Kasumi joined her there, feeling that more needed to be said. Although Akane felt that she was more than adequately aware of the dangers she had been flirting with, her sister proceeded to drive the point home of just what sort of disasters could befall her if she was not more careful. It went beyond painfully embarrassing, and Akane promised faithfully to be more cautious in future.

Nabiki returned home much later, in a foul mood. Her schemes had only netted her a little profit that day, and she had been unable to discover anything that Akane might have been up to. With a sigh of disgust, she decided to drop it. How important could some missing tofu be, anyway?

The next couple of days followed according to the rules Kasumi laid out for them, with the older girl allowing no more than a brief kiss good-night each evening. With Kasumi's help, they did get more opportunities to train together, and Ranma carefully instructed Akane in the things he wanted her to practice over the next year. The more Kasumi saw of young Ranma, the more impressed she was, and she tried to be no more intrusive than necessary in her younger sister's burgeoning romance.

Tuesday arrived all too soon from the young couple's point of view. Very early in the morning, well before dawn, the three of them stood outside the back gate in a light rain, saying their good-byes. Akane and Kasumi were both holding umbrellas, and Ranma was standing under Akane's. As the time of his departure approached, Ranma turned to the older sister, cleared his throat, and nervously asked, "Kasumi? Would you mind?"

Kasumi frowned at first, but then gave him a tender smile, turned around, and stepped back through the gate. Ranma did not hesitate, but took Akane firmly in his arms and kissed her deeply. This would likely be the last time that he would kiss her for a year, and he wanted her to remember it. Not to mention that he wanted the memory to sustain him through the coming days as well. After a lengthy interval they broke apart, staring deeply into each other's eyes.

"Next year I'll be staying. I promised you," Ranma told her quietly. Akane nodded, unable to speak through her tight throat, as a tear rolled down her cheek. Ranma lifted his hand and wiped the tear off with his thumb, then turned and walked down the street, letting the rain soak into his hair and coat. At the corner he turned and looked back at her one last time, longingly, then stepped out of sight. Akane stood there staring for a while, until she felt Kasumi's arms wrap around her from behind, and pull her into a comforting embrace.

* * *

On March 14th, Kasumi received a package in the mail, the handwritten return address purporting to be that of a book club. Feeling a little confused, she opened the package to find another smaller box inside, together with a note, which read "Kasumi, would you please give this to Akane? Ranma."

She waited until that evening after dinner, to knock on her youngest sister's door. Receiving permission to enter, she did so, closing the door carefully behind herself. When she was sure that they would not be observed, and speaking too quietly to be heard outside the room, she held out the box and said, "This came in the mail today for you, from Ranma."

Akane was surprised and pleased and unaccountably shy. She reached eagerly to take the box from her sister, excitedly wondering what in the world Ranma would be sending to her. Inside she found white chocolates, together with a scrawled note, reading, "I wouldn't want you to think I forgot last month. I wanted to make sure you knew how I feel. Ranma." Bursting with pleasure, she remembered that today was White Day. Akane carefully saved the note inside her diary, on the page for that day.

* * *

Time passed. Akane began her final year in middle school, as Kasumi began her final year in high school. On Akane's fifteenth birthday, after everyone else had retired, Kasumi presented her with a small wrapped box, saying that it came from Ranma. On opening it, she found a small piece of polished jade. It was not carved or shaped in any way and, except for its smoothness, might have been something picked up off of the ground. However, she treasured it, knowing how little the boy had, and kept it on her desk where she could touch it from time to time, imagining how his hands must have spent days polishing it.

During summer break, the Tendo family visited the beach again, although Akane did not have a particularly good time. Several boys insisted on pestering her, trying to catch her eye, despite her complete lack of interest in any of them. When the leaves changed in the autumn, Akane found herself walking through the park, wondering what it would be like to have Ranma walking there beside her. As December arrived, she began to count down the weeks until February.

* * *

The Tendo family had begun celebrating Christmas, if only in a secular fashion, while Soun's wife was still alive. The three daughters continued to do so thereafter, although their father didn't seem to care one way or another. Even Nabiki emerged from her hard financial shell for at least that one day of the year. That particular Christmas dawned gray and dreary, with a thick overcast and no snow to brighten the ground. In the early morning, after they had finished opening the presents, and while they were eating some cake which Kasumi had baked, the telephone rang. Excusing herself, Kasumi rose and went to answer it. She returned a minute later with a strange look in her eye. Picking up her plate again, she casually said, "Akane, that was Masa on the telephone. He said that Yuka wants to know if you could come over for a little while. I told him that seemed reasonable to me."

Akane blinked a few times, knowing from Kasumi's raised eyebrows and the tilt of her head that it was indeed Ranma and not Masa. It was astonishing, and unexpected, that he would have arrived so early this year. Not that she planned to complain! "Thanks, Kasumi. I guess I should head over there. I'll be back in a little while."

There weren't many people on the streets, as Akane picked her way over to the temple. She found her anticipation growing the closer she got. Not seeing him when she walked through the gate, she continued inside and found him sitting on a bench, looking a little sad. However, as soon as he noticed her he looked up and smiled happily.

"Hey, Akane," he said, with delight in his voice. "Come on over here and sit down. I have something for you."

The girl walked over and sat beside him. Raising her eyebrows, she inquired, "What is it, Ranma?"

Wordlessly he held out a box to her, wrapped in newsprint, with a piece of string tied into a bow. Akane took it from him and tore off the paper, then opened the box. With a feeling of awe, she pulled out a piece of carved mahogany, showing two sparring fighters on the top. She noticed that the top was actually a hinged lid, and on opening it she heard music begin to play. Realizing that it was a music box, she sat and listened to the haunting melody for a couple of minutes before closing the lid again. She turned to look at the boy beside her, her eyes wide.

"It ... it's beautiful, Ranma," she whispered. "Where did you get it?"

The boy shrugged, elated that she seemed pleased with his gift. "The last dojo we stayed at, the master seemed to like me a lot, almost as much as he detested pop. He told me I was welcome to come back and stay anytime, if I decided I couldn't put up with the old man any longer. Anyway, he had this thing on a shelf, and he caught me admiring it, though truthfully I was thinking of how much you might like it. He insisted on giving it to me; wouldn't take no for an answer. So, uh, I decided to make a quick visit to give it to you for Christmas. I'm glad you like it."

"I love it," she told him warmly, then leaned over to kiss him soundly. Drawing back, she said, a little plaintively, "Thank you so much. But I'm afraid that I don't have anything to give you."

"Aw, that's okay, Akane. I just wanted to give you a present, I wasn't expecting nothing in return. Although," he chuckled, "that kiss you gave me was definitely worth it."

Akane's eyes danced. "Oh, well, in that case ..." Then she leaned over and kissed him again, even more deeply.

As she pulled back again, Akane remembered the look which had been on his face when she came in. "Ranma, is something wrong? You weren't looking very happy when I first came in."

The boy sighed. "Well, sort of. I'm afraid I may not be able to make it in February this year, maybe not even March. Pop's been talking about heading over to China for a few months. He seems to be pretty serious about it too. We've stayed in one place for the past four months, while he's been working, actually working, to raise money for the trip." His eyes became calculating. "Gave me a chance to spend an entire term at a single school, though."

Akane understood exactly how Ranma had felt when she walked in, because now she felt the same way. The next time he visited, he was supposed to be coming to stay, but it looked like that was going to be delayed. She remembered his promise, that he would come by summer at the latest. She hoped he wouldn't be delayed that long. "You'll take care of yourself in China, promise? And don't go falling for any of the local girls."

Ranma snorted. "No need to fear about that. The only girl I'm interested in is sitting beside me, right now." Akane wriggled in pleasure, and they kissed a little more.

"How soon will you be leaving? Do you know?"

"Well, pop hasn't been too clear about that. A few more days I think, but I won't swear to it." Ranma considered that for a minute. "Hopefully, that'll give me time for a duel someone challenged me to a couple of days ago." The boy chuckled at some memory. "He's a real interesting guy. I swear he could get lost in a closet with no window and one door. I've been walking him from home to school and back every day this term, it honestly takes him two or three days to find his way, otherwise."

Akane frowned. "That sounds really strange. I hope you're not picking on him about it."

Ranma shook his head, still feeling amused. "Naw, just a little friendly teasing between guys. He knows I don't mean anything by it. After all, would I walk him back and forth every day if I didn't like him?" Ranma looked around the room and sighed. "I've gotta be going, Akane, before pop misses me."

She grabbed hold of the front of his coat, looking at him. "Please take care of yourself. I wish you were staying."

Ranma placed his hands on hers. "I wish that I was staying, too. Next time. It won't be much longer now. I'll take care, and I'll be thinking about you every day."

"I'll be thinking about you, too," Akane replied, then pulled him close and kissed him fiercely. Silently and regretfully, they stood up and left the temple together, Akane holding the box containing her gift. Once out the gate, they turned and left in separate directions, occasionally peeking over their shoulder at each other until they were out of sight. With a heavy sigh, Akane turned her feet toward home, while mentally increasing the countdown of the number of weeks before she could expect to see him again.

* * *

**Author's note:**

I have added a new page on my web site, called "Character Violence Ratings." It rates the _Ranma 1/2_ characters for their tendency to act violently, not counting response to physical attacks. Unsurprisingly, Pantyhose Taro is the most violent, and Kasumi Tendo is the least. What may be more surprising (to some, not to me) is that Akane falls right in the middle. Kodachi, Ukyo and Shampoo all have higher violence ratings than Akane.


	5. Ranma Returns

**Same Time Next Year  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the neko-ken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the neko-ken training and Akane's mother has died.

* * *

**Chapter 5. Ranma Returns**

February passed, and then March, with no word from Ranma. Kasumi graduated from high school, and Akane completed ninth grade, finishing her tenure in middle school. The youngest Tendo was looking forward to starting high school, but the anticipation was muted by her worries about her friend. This was the year he was to come to stay and she was finding the delay unbearable.

Then April arrived and high school began. Akane found herself a little bothered by all of the attention she was receiving from the boys. One rather tall and handsome boy from Nabiki's class, Tatewaki Kuno by name, approached her one day to ask for a date. Akane attempted to turn him down gently, but he became persistent, refusing to believe that she could not truly wish to date his magnificent self. He first assumed that she had only turned him down out of shyness, but when she persisted in refusing him, his vanity hit upon another explanation.

Recognizing her skill in the martial arts, Kuno arrived at the conclusion that she could not accept the attentions of any boy who had not first demonstrated his own martial proficiency to her. Thus he made an announcement before the school that any boy who wished to date Akane Tendo must prove his own skill by first defeating her in combat. The male students of Furinkan High School, clearly lacking something in the way of intellect, interpreted this to mean that anyone who was able to defeat her would win a date with her. Soon Akane was fighting her way through a horde of boys every day before school.

The month of May began with still no word from Ranma. The situation at school was wearing Akane down, and her temper was becoming frayed. The realization came to her that it was a very good thing that she already knew Ranma. Without his example, she would have long since reached the conclusion that all boys were hopeless perverts. As the days passed, she found herself constantly willing the telephone to ring, desperate to hear his voice again on the other end.

Her sixteenth birthday came and went, with no sign of the pigtailed boy. Akane spent long hours at her martial arts practice, trying to shut out her worries and fears. One technique on which she worked in particular was leaping, following the instructions which Ranma had given her the previous winter. She had long since mastered jumping onto the wall around the yard, and had achieved the laundry room roof shortly before the school term began. Now Akane finally succeeded in jumping from the ground onto the roof above her bedroom. She longed to demonstrate her new skill to Ranma, if only he would make his appearance.

The month of May was well advanced when one day, while Akane was working out in the dojo, she heard her father shouting. "Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane! Wonderful news! Please come quickly!" When the girls assembled in the family room, they found their father kneeling at the table, where he wept while clutching a postcard with a picture of a panda bear. The three girls exchanged curious glances, then looked at him expectantly.

"What is it, daddy?" Kasumi finally asked.

"Oh, how I've longed for this day," he declared through his tears. "A young man will be arriving shortly, who is to be a fiancé for one of you. When that one of you marries him and carries on the dojo, the Tendo family legacy will be secure."

Akane turned white. ‹No! I'm the one who's supposed to carry on the dojo! This can't be happening! Not when Ranma should be coming back any day! I can't be engaged to someone else! I won't!›

Out loud, the youngest girl demanded, or rather yelled, "What do you mean, a fiancé! Don't we have some say in who we marry!"

"Akane's right, daddy," agreed her sister Kasumi, though in a slightly calmer voice. "Who is this boy?"

Nabiki just sat there placidly, sipping at her lemonade through the straw, and watching the raindrops falling outside. She was waiting for more information before entering the debate.

Their father smiled at them. "He is the son of a very good friend of mine, Genma Saotome. The boy's name is Ranma."

Akane opened her mouth, then closed it. She stared at her father, unable to credit what she had just heard. He had spoken Japanese, she had understood each individual word, but collectively the words made no sense. She opened her mouth again, then closed it again, still without having made a sound. She turned to look at Kasumi, who was staring at Akane with a faintly quizzical expression, which her experienced sisters interpreted as shock. Nabiki quickly realized that there was something going on between her sisters, something from which she was excluded. She looked back and forth at the two of them, wondering what in hell was happening. Akane managed to choke out a question, "You ... you said his name is Ranma Saotome?"

Soun Tendo, oblivious to the byplay, answered happily. "Yes, that's right. He and his father have been on a training trip, and recently returned from China."

Akane got to her feet shakily. "I ... I ... fiancé? That's ... I think that I'll go lie down for a bit. This is a bit of a shock, finding out ..." She paused. "Finding out that one of us is going to be engaged."

"I'll come with you," Kasumi said in a trembling voice, and stood as well. Nabiki stared at them both, suspiciously. They obviously knew something more about this than what their father had told them so far, and she was determined to find out what it was.

At that moment a commotion arose outside, and a soprano voice drifted in through the open door. "Dammit pop, lemme down! They can't see me like this! I've gotta have a chance to explain first."

Nabiki said, "Perhaps that's Ranma, now," then watched as Akane unconsciously shook her head. ‹How does she know it's not Ranma just from hearing his voice? Has she met this Ranma before?›

Everyone jumped, startled, as a panda bear strode into the room as if it belonged there. It was carrying a red-haired girl over its shoulder, which it lifted off and placed on her feet in front of them. The girl's blue eyes swept over them all a little wildly. Akane, her mind still firmly focused on Ranma despite the bizarre pair in front of her, couldn't help but think, ‹Her pigtail looks just like Ranma's except for the color. ... Ranma ... engaged? To me? ... Even her eyes are the same color as his. ... I wonder where he is?›

"Er, hello miss, my name is Soun Tendo," the bewildered father introduced himself. "May I help you in some way?"

The redhead's eyes locked on Akane, and she swallowed visibly, looking terrified. In a quiet voice, she replied, "Uh, yeah. Could I have some hot water, please?" The stares which were directed upon her only intensified with this unusual request, but Kasumi, in her usual unflappable way, walked past the panda bear and into the kitchen, returning after a minute with a glass of hot water. She presented it to the strange girl, with one eyebrow very slightly raised.

The redhead took the glass and held it in a shaking hand. "A ... a couple of weeks ago, my ... _idiot_ ... father took me to a remote valley in China, where ... well, I'll explain in more detail later. The short version is, we both ended up cursed." She ignored the skeptical looks which started to appear. "Cold water, like the rain, makes me look like this." She looked down at her body, then back up. "Hot water changes me back." She was looking straight at Akane now. "I'm really, really sorry about this." She then upended the glass of water over her head.

The members of the Tendo family each took a step backward as the girl gained several centimeters in height, her chest flattened, and her hair turned black. It took Soun and Nabiki several seconds to realize that the girl was now a boy. For Akane, however, recognition was instantaneous. "Ranma?" she wailed, then her eyes rolled up and she fell bonelessly. The pigtailed boy leapt forward, and just barely managed to catch her before she hit the floor. He stood there holding Akane in his arms, looking around at the various expressions of bewilderment on every face except for Kasumi's.

"Erm," he struggled to find something to say. "Guess the curse was a bit of a shock. Couldn't let her hit her head on the floor you know. If one of you could show me where her room is, I'll put her down on her bed until she comes to." He was looking hopefully at Kasumi as he made this last suggestion.

Kasumi sighed but nodded, and led the way up the stairs, Nabiki trailing suspiciously behind them. Downstairs the panda strolled into the kitchen and poured itself another glass of hot water, which it then used to transform into the bald and slightly stout, but still muscular, Genma Saotome. He then led the shell shocked Soun Tendo back into his own bedroom for a private discussion.

Ranma carefully laid Akane down on her bed and spent a few minutes making sure that she was arranged as comfortably as he could manage. When he turned around, he found himself looking into the coldest glare he had ever seen, directed at him by the sister to whom he had not yet been introduced. He took an involuntary step backward.

"I want to know what is going on here, and I want to know now," Nabiki hissed at him. "How do the three of you know one another, and what does it have to do with you marrying one of us, and what in _hell_ was that business with the water?"

Ranma started to stammer, but Kasumi came to his rescue. "Please calm down Nabiki. I would like some answers to a few questions as well, but we can surely be civil about it. Akane and Ranma first met a few years ago, and she introduced him to me last year, but none of us knew anything about him marrying anyone." However, there was a hint of a question in her voice as she came to this last point and she cocked an inquiring eyebrow at Ranma. When he shook his head vigorously, she nodded and went on. "Also, he didn't have his little problem with water a year ago. In fact, I believe I heard him tell us downstairs that he received his 'curse' two weeks ago, and I admit that I'm very curious to hear the story behind that. But Akane definitely needs to hear it as well. I think we should delay the inquisition while I go get a damp towel, and try to revive our little sister. Ranma, you stay here. Nabiki, you stay with him."

Nabiki nodded briefly, not taking her eyes off of Ranma. She had no intention of letting him out of her sight before getting the information she wanted. Her older sister's synopsis had only served to whet her interest.

Kasumi immediately did as she had suggested, and was soon back in the room, applying a damp towel to Akane's forehead. Ranma hovered nervously, distressed to see Akane so vulnerable and unsure of what he should do. Nabiki continued to glare, with only marginally diminished intensity, at the young man standing over the bed. After a few more moments, Akane's eyelids fluttered open. She saw her sisters first, but upon catching sight of the boy her eyes lit and she smiled, exclaiming, "Ranma! You're here!" Then memory started to return, and her expression became puzzled. "Um, the business downstairs, that ... that wasn't a dream was it? I mean, you ... you ..."

"Really were a red-haired girl?" Ranma finished for her. He hung his head, ashamed. "Yeah, I'm afraid I was. Am. Sometimes."

"How?" she cried out, then sat up and grabbed hold of one of his hands with both of hers. "What did your father do _this_ time?"

Nabiki frowned, taking in the interaction between the two. She was wholly unaccustomed to the idea of her sister acting like this around _any_ boy. It was obvious that the two were already close, and Kasumi wasn't looking surprised at all. And Nabiki Tendo absolutely _hated_ being out of the loop. She turned her attention back to the strange boy, who had just sat down on the bed beside her sister, with his hand still held in hers.

Ranma sighed heavily, then began speaking quietly, telling his story. "Like I said downstairs, it happened a couple of weeks ago. We traveled way up into the Bayankala Mountains in China, along some paths that would've given a mountain goat pause. Pop refused to say where we were heading, but he clearly had some destination in mind. Finally we came out in this valley and were met by some Chinese guy who said he was the local guide. He told us the valley is named Jusenkyo, which means something like "Pools of Sorrow," and pop nodded like this meant we'd come to the right place. The name seemed to fit, 'cause the floor of the valley is covered by over a hundred small pools of water, and there was this air of ... sadness ... over the whole place."

Ranma stared off into the distance, as if he was once again seeing the valley he described to them. "I wish now I'd never set eyes on the place. Well, pop said that according to his guidebook it was a legendary training ground, and that he brought me there to spar. So he led me out among the pools, and then attacked me. The guide was shouting something at us, but my attention was on pop. I managed to get a good kick in that sent him flying, and he landed in one of the pools of water. When he went under, all of the noise he'd been making suddenly stopped, and I was able to hear the guide saying, 'Oh no! Mister customer fall into spring of drowned panda.' The next thing I knew, instead of the old man, this great big panda bear jumped out of the water."

The girls around him looked like they wanted to be skeptical, but they'd already seen the panda bear downstairs, and seen Ranma change when splashed with water. He continued his story. "Well, as you might expect, I was just a bit startled at that point. I left myself wide open, and pop attacked, despite what had happened to him. He knocked me into one of the pools, and as I surfaced, I heard the guide saying something about 'spring of drowned girl.' I looked down, and pulled the top of my gi open and, well, I'm sure you can guess what I saw. Pop obviously saw something in my eyes, 'cause that panda took off running. Lucky for him, too, 'cause if I'd caught him, there would have been murder done."

Akane's eyes were flaming. "There's going to be murder done, just as soon as I get my hands on him. I'm in the mood to get a panda skin rug for the family room."

Ranma cleared his throat nervously, not looking at her. "After that, we made our way back across China, to come back to Japan, though not without a few other colorful incidents along the way. But I told pop that the curse was the final straw. I was going to leave him for good as soon as we got back to Japan." Ranma turned sad, almost fearful, eyes on Akane. "After all, I had a promise to keep. Though I can understand why you might want to tell a freak like me to get lost."

Akane looked ready to burst into tears at his last sentence. "Never! And don't you ever let me hear you call yourself that again! It's your father's fault, not yours. I just wish you'd left him years ago when I first begged you to."

Dawning hope was replacing despair in the boy's eyes, and Kasumi's own eyes were glistening. Nabiki's, however, were still hard, and her voice cut through the sentiment. "That's all very interesting, and I'd like to hear a _little_ more about how you and Akane met at some point, but just at the moment I would like to point out that you haven't left your father. He is here with you, and he and our father are talking about an engagement."

"Uh, yeah, well." Ranma was having trouble looking at any of the sisters. "When I got back to Japan, I told him that I was leaving him and heading to Nerima. Pop said he had business of his own in Nerima, and I didn't try to stop him when he tagged along. Then when we got into town, he dropped this little bombshell that I'm supposed to get engaged to one of the daughters of his old friend Soun Tendo. Well, I knew perfectly well that was the name of Akane's father, so I was sorta stunned, temporarily, at this news. I guess pop had decided not to take any chances, 'cause he took advantage of my distraction to whack me over the head with something, and knocked me out. When I woke up, I found myself over his shoulder, and we were just coming through your gate."

A smirk slowly spread itself across Nabiki's face. "At least we know who's the logical choice for the engagement." She was looking pointedly at her younger sister.

Akane blushed, Ranma looked panicked, and they both started stammering denials. They then turned equally hurt looks on one another, and Akane pulled her hands back from Ranma's.

Ranma pulled himself together, and considered his next words carefully, grateful for the lessons his friend had given him a couple of years ago on the meaning of 'tact.' He looked Akane in the eyes, and spoke with conviction. "Look, Akane. You _know_ how much I care about you. You've been my longest, truest friend, and I hope I convinced you last year that you're a bit more than that. None of that's changed. It's just ... we're only sixteen. I'm not ready for engagements, or marriages, or anything like that. And I'd be surprised if you were, either."

Akane took a deep breath, trying to settle her own emotions from their shared outburst. "I know, Ranma. I feel the same way. But can we do anything to get out of it?" She turned pleading eyes toward her oldest sister.

Kasumi thought about it carefully, but then shook her head. Her eyes were sympathetic as she said, "I'm sorry, Akane, but I don't think so. Despite how emotional father has become over the years, he is still capable of being incredibly stubborn over some issues. I am sure that he is going to see this as a matter of family honor, and will insist on one of us being engaged to Ranma. The best choice that I can see is to wring what advantage you can out of it." Despite the gravity of the situation, her eyes twinkled as she added, "Assuming, that is, that you're the one who is going to be engaged to Ranma, and not Nabiki or myself."

Nabiki's own eyes turned mischievous, as she looked Ranma up and down like a piece of meat. "Come to think of it, there might be compensations. Perhaps I _should_ consider it."

Akane growled. "If one of us _has_ to be engaged to Ranma, it's going to be me. What were you saying about advantages, Kasumi?"

The oldest of the sisters smiled. "My first suggestion is to tell father that you are willing to accept the engagement, but only if he accepts a few conditions in turn. One is that there is to be no talk of marriage until after you graduate from high school. The second is that Ranma is to be permitted to stay here, and attend school. Although I meant what I said last year about appropriate behavior. A third condition is that Genma Saotome will _not_ be permitted to stay here." Kasumi stopped smiling, and went on frigidly. "If father attempts to object on that point, hopefully we can convince him by recounting some of the things which Saotome-san has done to Ranma over the years."

Nabiki's eyes narrowed as she wondered what sort of things Ranma's father could have done which would be worse than the curses he led them into in China. Then she noticed how Kasumi's eyes had hardened. At that she shuddered, thinking that perhaps she didn't want to hear the details on something which could make her gentle older sister so coldly furious.

Kasumi continued making her point. "In addition to father, this might be useful to you in handling the situation at school. Perhaps you should take a moment to explain to Ranma what has been going on." She paused while Akane explained to Ranma about Kuno and the hentai horde, at which the boy's eyes narrowed in anger.

Nabiki went very still. She didn't think either of her sisters knew she'd been doing a thriving business selling pictures of Akane to the boys around school. It occurred to her that now might not be a very good time for that particular bit of free trade to be discovered.

Kasumi then went on. "If Ranma were to turn up here as merely a boy in whom you are willing to show interest, I'm not sure that it would make much of an impression on the boys at school. However, if he shows up as your _fiancé_, then I think it will be much harder for them to ignore it. After all, they could hardly fool themselves into thinking that they can win a date with you, if you were engaged to be married. As Ranma is sufficiently skilled to handle any threat they might make, it could put an end to the problem."

Akane thought this over. "It might at that," she admitted, almost unwillingly. "Or at least, most of the problem. I'm not sure it would penetrate Kuno's head." She turned a questioning gaze on Nabiki.

The middle sister had also been thinking it over, and was ready to answer. Without blushing, despite Kuno being her biggest customer, she agreed with Akane and added her own assessment of his character. "You're probably right. Kuno lives in his own little world, and he'll probably convince himself that you've been forced into the engagement against your wishes, and that surely you must wish for him to rescue you."

Akane looked ill at the thought, but realized that Nabiki was correct. Ranma looked angrier, but was aware that he was too unfamiliar with the fellow in question to offer any useful input.

Nabiki added, "It should also effectively squash some of the uglier rumors which have been circulating. All of those declarations of yours about how you hate all of the boys at school have been leading a few people to speculate on whether you prefer the girls." Akane looked even more ill, but Nabiki shook her head and continued. "Instead, you have this hunk here for a fiancé. If you take my advice, you won't tell anyone until he comes to school, and then you walk in with him the first day arm-in-arm. Hit everybody right between the eyes with it."

An evil smile lit Akane's face. "That should get a beautiful reaction from the hentai horde. Can you get me photographs of their faces when they first see us? Kuno especially? I'll be happy to pay you for them." Nabiki's eyes brightened at this unexpected opportunity for profit.

Nabiki added, "It might also be a good idea to try to avoid letting anyone find out about Ranma's curse, until after everyone has it fixed inside their heads that he's a boy. After all, they're going to find out eventually, but when they do it'll be better if they think you're engaged to a boy with a weird problem, than to have them think you're engaged to some sort of half-boy, half-girl."

Ranma scowled at this description, but Akane just sighed and nodded. She reached over and took hold of Ranma's hand again, and squeezed it gently, smiling at him when he looked over at her.

Kasumi smiled tolerantly at her younger sisters. "In the meantime, if you are both in agreement about these plans, then perhaps it is time for us to go downstairs and speak with father? We don't want to give them time to make any elaborate plans of their own, and it would be best to get Saotome-san on his way as soon as possible."

Akane looked a little nervous. "Um ... could you two give Ranma and me a moment in private first, please?" Kasumi gave Akane a tolerant smile, while Nabiki's expression was more calculating, but they both stepped out into the hall and shut the door behind them.

Akane bit her lower lip, wondering how to say what she wanted to try to say. She knew Ranma well enough to know that this curse must be terribly humiliating for him, not that Akane was too happy about it herself. On top of that, the two of them were being forced into an engagement!

She gave a little sigh, and started. "Ranma? It ... it's really good to see you again, I've been looking forward so much to you coming back. I know this isn't quite the way you imagined it. It certainly isn't the way I did. But ... I'm glad you're back."

"Even with this curse?" he asked hoarsely.

Akane felt a tear in the corner of each eye, but whispered, "Even with the curse, yes. I'll take you any way I can get you."

Ranma looked away quickly, but not before she saw the moisture in his own eyes. She knew how much he disliked showing when he was hurt or sad, so just waited patiently while he got himself back under control. "Thanks, Akane," he finally said, his voice cracking. "I can't tell you how much that means to me."

He took a deep breath, then went on a little more calmly. "What about this business of the two of us being engaged?"

She looked him in the eyes. "Like you said, we're not ready for it, but I don't think we're going to get a choice. We've both had to deal with problems in our lives before. This is just another problem. No ... not a problem. It's a challenge. And we'll face it together. Right?"

"Right." Ranma's smile was a little more genuine now. "If I have to be engaged to someone, then I'm sure glad it's you."

Akane leaned forward and hugged him tightly, then drew back a little to kiss him. Reluctantly she broke the kiss and said, "Kasumi's right. We need to get downstairs before our fathers screw things up even worse. Are you ready?" Ranma nodded, and they stood and opened the bedroom door to find the two older sisters standing out in the hall, pretending not to be eavesdropping.

The three sisters and the young man went back down the stairs and into the family room, where they found the two fathers waiting for them. Even Genma Saotome could not fail to see how unwelcome his presence was to the three daughters of his old friend. All four representatives of the next generation, including his own son, were looking at him as if he were a particularly disgusting biological specimen to be dissected. Soun looked the youngsters over, and spoke, "I'm glad to see you looking better, Akane. So, Ranma-kun, I hope that you have had a chance to meet each of my daughters. Now it is time for you to choose the one whom you will marry."

"You will insist on going through with this, then, father?" Kasumi asked him.

"I'm afraid I must, my daughter," he replied. "It is a matter of family honor. Besides, it is my fondest wish to see the two schools of Anything Goes Martial Arts united."

After a brief glance to each of her sisters, Kasumi then asked, "And was this also our mother's wish for us?"

Her father gave a weak laugh, and refused to look at them, as he mumbled something which couldn't be heard and scratched the back of his head in a nervous gesture. Looking over toward Ranma, he essentially repeated himself, "Our honor requires this of us. One of you must marry him."

Akane stepped forward, then knelt down across the table from her father and looked him directly in the eyes. In a quiet and level voice which he barely recognized as that of his youngest, she declared, "Father, I am conditionally willing to accept Ranma Saotome as my fiancé. Conditionally!" The last word was quickly added at a louder volume as Soun started to show an unseemly amount of joy over her statement. "If you are willing to meet the conditions I have, we can formalize the engagement immediately. If you are not, then I will refuse the engagement, no matter how much it stains our honor."

Nabiki wasn't too sure about this Ranma character yet, and that curse of his was downright weird. On the other hand, the hentai horde _had_ been getting out of control, and the recent rumors about her sister threatened the reputation of the entire family, herself included. For the time being, at least, it seemed reasonable to throw her support behind her sister's decision.

"If I may add my own weight to this, daddy? No way will I even consider marrying this ..." She quickly rejected the word 'freak' as it occurred to her that Akane might brain her if she used it, and substituted the more neutral, "... boy. Further, if you refuse to meet Akane's conditions, you had better be prepared to start handling your investments by yourself. You might also find food not appearing at your place at the table, and your laundry remaining undone. With a little thought, other similar inconveniences may suggest themselves to you. And to us."

The Tendo father turned his head to look at his eldest, and most dutiful, daughter. There was no smile upon Kasumi's lips, and she gave a very small shake of her head to convey a negative response to his unasked question. He felt shock to realize that she also would refuse to accept the engagement, despite the requirement of honor.

Soun Tendo swallowed as he looked upon the stony faces of all three of his daughters, and the unreadable expression of his potential son-in-law. He was prepared to be intransigent about the need to honor the agreement to engage Ranma to one of his daughters. He was ready to do whatever it took to get his way in this matter. However, it appeared that his daughters were also prepared to be stubborn, and it seemed that the easiest way to achieve his goal might be to hear these mysterious conditions. This was especially so since he believed his youngest daughter to be the best choice for the match, given that the avowed purpose was to unite the two schools and she was by far the most devoted martial artist of the three. Furthermore, given Akane's recent attitude concerning the boys at her school, it was a near miracle that she was willing to accept the engagement under any conditions.

Genma Saotome looked over at his old friend, wondering what was going through the other man's head. Their agreement had to be kept, regardless of any foolishness these girls might have in mind. He hoped Soun wasn't going to allow himself to be backed down from the engagement, if any of these 'conditions' turned out to be preposterous.

"Very well, Akane," her father said benevolently, "I am willing to listen to your conditions. If they truly are reasonable, I may even be willing to meet them."

Akane nodded, taking a deep breath to start. "First, Ranma will move in with us; he will be given a room here. He and I will train together, and we will help him to get admitted to Furinkan High School."

Genma burst out with a hearty laugh. He and Soun had already decided to do all of that. Roughly, he said, "Is that all you want? This is easier than I thought it would be." Turning to his old friend, he suggested, "Agree with her and let's get on with it."

"That's not all!" Akane responded angrily, while her father tried to silence his friend with a sharp look.

Soun turned back to his youngest. "Of course, daughter. I feel that is an eminently sensible suggestion. I will be more than happy to agree to that."

Akane stopped scowling at Genma in order to give her father a happy smile, then frowned as she recalled that there was more to be said. "Second, although Ranma and I will be engaged immediately, there will be no attempt to push us into a marriage before we graduate from high school. We are both too young, and that will be more than soon enough to fulfill the terms of the agreement between the families."

Soun looked thoughtful, but once more Genma was quick to speak, registering an immediate and uncompromising protest. "Nonsense! No time like the present. What possible point could there be to waiting almost three years? The sooner you're married, the sooner the schools can be united! Besides, that way you can get started on producing an heir right away." He grinned at his cleverness at making this last point. Girls liked babies, right? Also, if his son were to father a child, that would be even greater proof of his manliness.

The three Tendo daughters looked at the man as if he were insane, while Ranma just hid his face in his hand. Even Soun Tendo looked shocked, as it dawned on him that if his baby were to marry immediately, then she and this Ranma would ... no, he couldn't even think it. Clearing his throat, and refusing to look at Genma, he quickly said, "Er, yes, no rush at all, ha ha. A nice _long_ engagement sounds like an excellent idea. I agree absolutely." Genma looked upon his friend as he would a traitor.

Akane responded demurely, "Thank you, daddy. I will accept your word of honor on that. There is one last condition, and it is one on which all of us absolutely insist. If you cannot agree to it, then there will be no engagement with any of us, no matter how much you demand it or carry on about it."

Soun Tendo looked in his daughter's eyes, and saw something which made him shiver. He had seen that look before, in the eyes of his late wife, and it had always meant that she was making a statement on which she would not be budged. He found himself unable to meet that gaze, and instead looked down and requested, "Tell me what it is you wish daughter."

Akane looked over at Ranma's father, and the disgust in her eyes was unmistakable. "Saotome-san will _not_ be made welcome at our house. He will not be permitted to stay here even one night. As soon as we have formalized the engagement, he will take his pack and leave."

Her father reared back in shock at this demand, and Genma emitted a strangled "What?" The latter felt the first twinge of panic, worrying over his planned retirement, but held onto the thought that his old friend would surely not turn him out so casually. He turned to Soun and suggested, "This is ridiculous, Tendo. It is time for this farce to end and for you to remind these girls whose house this is."

Soun shook his head, feeling as if he were unable to clear it. He looked back and forth from his old friend, whose company he had expected to enjoy in the coming days, to his future son-in-law, who was staring with unconcealed disdain at his own father. His eyes wandered over Nabiki, who was watching the proceedings with a detached air of amusement, to Kasumi, who was looking at his old friend as if she had found something unpleasant under a rock in the garden and was too polite to comment upon it. Finally, he looked across the table at Akane, who still had that expression he remembered so clearly belonging to his wife, the one which spoke clearly to his memories of an absolute refusal to yield. Her eyes upon Genma showed nothing but loathing. In a plaintive tone, he requested enlightenment with a single word. "Why?"

Akane proceeded to enlighten him. She began with the neko-ken training and went on from there. As she continued without pause, detailing one heinous, despicable or foolish act after another, her father's head drooped lower and lower. Genma stared at her, wondering how in hell the boy had managed to tell her about so much in so little time. Nabiki, face pale, turned around shortly into the tale in order to preserve her reputation; she didn't want anyone to see how Akane's descriptions were affecting her.

When Akane wound down, she looked at her father expectantly. Unable to meet anyone's eyes, he asked quietly, "Saotome?"

Genma shook himself, throwing off the near paralysis which had afflicted him. "Tendo! You know very well that the life of a martial artist is fraught with peril! I had to be hard on the boy, or he would never have become the young man he is! Everything that I did was in his own best interest!"

Soun winced at this declaration. Once upon a time, while training under their old master, he might even have believed such a statement. That was before he had met his wife Kimiko, and she had opened his eyes to a wider world. Thinking of their master, Soun realized how similar Genma's 'training' methods had been to that evil old man's. He remembered standing on a mountainside with Genma, euphoric that they had sealed away the old man forever. The time when they decided to join their families. When had Genma decided to become a lesser shadow of Master Happosai, at least in his approach to training?

Soun realized that Genma was still speaking, ranting really. He struggled to bring the words into focus. "... the boy. He's the finest martial artist his age in the world! And that is due solely to my training! Naturally, a female would not understand this. ..."

Kasumi cleared her throat, and somehow the quiet sound cut across the man's rant, silencing him. Soun looked toward his eldest daughter, trying to overcome the confusion in his mind. "Father, Akane has told you that this condition is an absolute requirement, and I am fully in agreement with her. This ... man will not be welcomed as a guest into the house which holds our mother's memory. If he stays, then I will leave, and I will take our mother's shrine with me."

Soun blanched. Somehow he heard the echo of his wife's voice in Kasumi's speech, and wondered that he had never noticed how much his daughters reminded him of his late wife. He thought of _Kimiko's_ likely reaction to what Akane had told him of how Saotome had raised his son. In a whisper which could barely be heard, he surrendered. "I accept your conditions, daughters. It shall be as you have requested."

Genma stared in shock, seeing his dreams shattered of a retirement of ease at the Tendo home. "But ... but ..." he sputtered, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Thank you, daddy," Akane responded, and everyone could hear the quiet triumph in her voice. "Then I willingly accept my engagement to Ranma. I suggest that we hold the omiai immediately, so that Saotome-san may be on his way."

This was done, and far sooner than he could have believed possible, Genma Saotome found himself stepping out of the gate of the Tendo home, his back bent once more under the weight of his pack. He looked at the house again in confusion, trying to piece together how things had come to this pass. He was sincerely and completely bewildered, with no idea of what to do next. Even before coming to the Tendo's, he had decided against contacting his wife, given the danger should she learn of the boy's curse. He certainly did not dare to return to her without their son. Further, he had made himself persona non grata at most of the dojos throughout Japan. Hesitantly, his feet turned toward the distant mountains, where he could at least camp for a time, while he tried to work out what he should do.

**END **

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**Author's note:**

**The above is the end of the story.**

As I warned in the author's note before chapter 1, this is all of the story I intended to tell. The next "chapter" is an appendix summarizing a few events from over the next few years, for those who are interested in such details, but doesn't go into any great depth.


	6. Appendix

**Same Time Next Year  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. What if the old woman was not outdoors on the day that Ranma learned the neko-ken? Akane and Ranma first meet at age ten just after Ranma undergoes the neko-ken training and Akane's mother has died.

This appendix is _not_ part of the story in the sense of the story as a literary unit with a beginning, plot and end. That ended with the previous chapter.

Although the appendix is written in story form, it isn't really a story in the sense of something constructed with an idea for dramatic impact. It's more a short description of how I see some of the major events unfolding, given what has already transpired. I'm not really interested in rewriting the entire manga series in this universe, so this is my way of providing a brief answer to the question "What next?" for those who are interested.

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**Appendix**

The next three years of high school were filled with many events of interest, which Akane and Ranma faced together. Which isn't to say their lives were like a fairy tale, full of happily ever after. From time to time they disagreed, and even had occasional angry arguments, but they always worked out their differences in relatively short order. Besides, such occurrences did provide them with the pleasant opportunity to make up afterward.

As planned, that first morning Akane had walked through the school gate with her arm tucked in Ranma's. Not a single member of the horde attacked them - all were frozen in shock, comical looks upon their faces, and not a few simply fell over and lay on the ground unmoving. The photographs which Nabiki took sold so well among the girls at the school that she didn't even bother to charge Akane for her copies. Naturally, Tatewaki Kuno attacked Ranma, but Ranma was ready for him and knocked him unconscious for his trouble. Kuno continued to be a pest over the years, but was never more than a minor annoyance, and their trouble with him tapered off after he graduated from high school and went overseas to college.

The boy Ranma was supposed to have the duel with before leaving for China had managed to get lost and had arrived several days late for the duel only to find that Ranma had departed the day before. This boy's name was Ryoga Hibiki, and he foolishly decided to chase after Ranma, all the way to Jusenkyo Valley. There he naturally ended up with a curse as well, one that changed him into a small black pig. When he showed up in Nerima, Ranma felt bad that he had been cursed and promised to tell no one about it. However, Ryoga then made the unfortunate mistake of allowing his cursed form to be adopted as a pet by Akane.

Akane was so charmed by the adorable miniature pig that she took him to bed with her, laughing at Ranma for being jealous of a pet pig. Ranma stewed over the situation for a while, then fetched a kettle of hot water and took it to Akane's room. Not wanting to break his promise, but determined to put a stop to the other boy's act, he woke Akane to hand her the kettle of hot water and then pointed at her sleeping pet. Her eyes going very wide, Akane took the kettle and poured some of the water onto the pig, transforming him into a startled, and very naked, Ryoga.

Ryoga was released from the hospital a month later. After that he would show up in Nerima from time to time, usually if he was trying to find his way to some other city, and would cause some trouble. But together Akane and Ranma were always more than capable of dealing with him.

Then there were the various girls who tried to fall in love with Ranma. Kodachi Kuno, Tatewaki's sister, was one. A martial arts gymnast, she was as delusional as her brother and insisted that Ranma must love her. Like Tatewaki, she was never more than a minor annoyance, and finally gave up in frustration after Ranma and Akane were married.

One thing that Ranma had neglected to tell Akane about his trip to China was how he had defeated an Amazon girl by the name of Shampoo while in female shape, for which he had received the Kiss of Death. It hadn't seemed all that important to him, at least not until Shampoo showed up in Nerima to kill onna-Ranma. Akane cooperated with Ranma to deal with this problem, and in the process Shampoo learned of Ranma's curse before anyone was hurt. The Chinese girl reluctantly admitted that the Kiss of Death was inapplicable, since Ranma was a male, although internally she regretted that she had not known this at the time of her defeat so that she could have given him the Kiss of Marriage instead. There no longer being any point to her quest, Shampoo returned to China.

However, her memory of the handsome male Ranma was quite pleasant, and her regret at not having him gradually grew greater. When she arrived at her home she decided to tell a little white lie to her great-grandmother Cologne. Specifically, she informed the matriarch that Ranma had defeated her again and she had given him the Kiss of Marriage. She expected this to get her sent back to Japan to claim her husband. She did not expect to end up with a Jusenkyo curse herself, and for Cologne to accompany her to Japan, but those things happened as well. The punishment she received when Cologne learned the truth was something she would remember for a long time.

However, Cologne's presence in Nerima turned out to be a stroke of luck for Ranma and Akane. It was around that time that Genma's and Soun's old master escaped from the imprisonment in which they had trapped him long ago. Happosai was his name, an incredibly perverted, amoral and thoroughly disreputable old goat, totally lacking in any sense of honor whatsoever. He also turned out to be an old enemy of Cologne. Since Happosai seemed determined to cause quite a lot of trouble for Ranma and Akane, and operating on the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Cologne decided not to return home immediately, and instead gave a good deal of clandestine aid to Ranma. Shampoo took the opportunity of this extended stay in Japan to hatch occasional plots to try to win Ranma's love, all of which failed miserably, and which usually earned her a good whack over the head from Cologne's staff when she was invariably caught.

The third girl to show up, and announce her claim on Ranma, was one Ukyo Kuonji, an okonomiyaki chef. Ranma's father had engaged Ranma to Ukyo when they were six years old, conveniently overlooking the old agreement between himself and Soun Tendo to unite the Anything Goes schools through a union of their offspring. The proposed engagement with Ukyo turned out to be a scam to gain possession of her father's okonomiyaki cart, and Genma had abandoned Ukyo on the road instead of raising her as he had promised.

Ukyo arrived in Nerima planning to beat Ranma senseless, but when that failed, she tried to reinstate the engagement instead. However, this scheme ran into the brick wall of Akane's and Ranma's love for one another, and was further frustrated by the acceptance of their engagement by the rest of the Tendo's and, later, by Ranma's mother. In short, Ukyo's claim was ignored by everyone until she gave up in frustration. Eventually, she moved on with her life, and fell in love with and married a young man who came to work for her in the restaurant which she had established in Nerima while trying to win Ranma.

Genma Saotome returned to the Tendo compound once during this interval, thinking that sufficient time had passed that people might have forgotten some of his minor failings enough to welcome him. He was disabused of this notion as soon as he walked through the gate of the Tendo compound and met Kasumi Tendo. She had seen him from an upper window of the house as he was coming down the street, and met him on the path holding a katana. Genma quickly discovered that the oldest Tendo daughter was more lethal with a blade than his own wife Nodoka. He fled for his life and never tried to set foot in the house again. However, he hung around Nerima after that, frequently meeting with Soun Tendo in taverns. Soun felt some residual guilt for having sided with his daughters against his old friend, and assuaged this guilt with money, passing a few yen to Genma from time to time when he could afford it. In repayment, Genma would occasionally get the two of them into some kind of trouble. Whenever this happened, it would be up to Akane and Ranma to help them out of it.

Ranma trained Akane as he had promised, and she advanced rapidly in skill, becoming his near equal by the time they graduated from high school. Many people made the mistake of underestimating Akane, a mistake which they always regretted afterward. For example, there was the case of the bitter young man with a Jusenkyo curse from the pool of drowned yeti holding an eel and crane riding an ox. While in his cursed form, this fellow attempted to kidnap Akane. When he regained consciousness the next morning, he made himself a silent promise that if he ever attempted to kidnap anyone ever again, to never, never, _never_ hold that person within kicking distance of his crotch.

When Ranma's mother, Nodoka Saotome, first showed up at the Tendo's, Genma was not present to cause difficulties. She met her son in his male form, and he proudly introduced his mother to his fiancée. Afterward, the two teens explained his curse to Nodoka. The older woman was naturally very startled by this development, and stayed away for several days while she pondered her feelings on the matter, but finally returned and declared herself pleased with her son's manly behavior. In particular, that he was happily engaged to such a lovely young woman, and that he had shown no cowardice about his curse, such as attempting to hide it from her.

Shortly after this event, Genma ceased to be a problem. As details of her husband's ideas of training became known to her, Nodoka found herself conceiving a great disgust for Genma, prompting her to do something she had always considered a dishonor. She sued for divorce, citing abandonment as grounds. She then personally hunted down her wandering husband to inform him of the suit, and she further described the exact manner and number of pieces into which she would carve him if he ever again came near Ranma, Akane or any member of their family, current or future. Nodoka offered to have Ranma move back in with her, but the boy pled his love for Akane, and she relented and allowed him to continue to live in the Tendo home.

As for Kasumi's insistence that the young couple behave appropriately even though living under the same roof, they did try to be good, and for some time their behavior was all that Kasumi could have asked for. Granted, they did engage in a lot of kissing, and this was often done behind closed doors as otherwise Nabiki could be counted upon to tell them to "get a room." Eventually, however, they did start to bend the rules. It started with accidental touches during after-workout massages, and when Ranma undertook the task of teaching Akane to swim. Gradually, the accidents became less accidental, and started to happen while they were kissing as well. By the time that they were well into their junior year, they had given up any pretense as to what they were doing, and lived in fear of Kasumi catching them. Not that this fear stopped them.

Kasumi had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but had come to accept it, provided they did not go too far, since she could see how deeply in love the two were. In fact, she even ran subtle interference, preventing the couple from being caught by Nabiki or Soun on several occasions. She did have her limits, however, as Ranma discovered one night after midnight, when he decided to try to sneak into Akane's room for a bit of petting, only to run into Kasumi in the hallway. He sheepishly turned around and headed back to his own bedroom.

Eventually, it got to the point where Akane and Ranma themselves decided that enough was enough. Near the end of their junior year, while everyone was gathered in the family room, including Nodoka Saotome, the couple announced their desire to get married during the upcoming summer. To their amazement, Soun put up a bit of a fuss, saying that they had originally insisted on waiting until after graduation, and that he wasn't ready for his baby girl to grow up just yet. After a few days they managed to wear him down, and the wedding took place in July of their senior year.

Cologne used the event of the wedding to set up a trap for Happosai, one which was finally successful. She hauled the old lech back to China to face punishment by her people, and Shampoo perforce had to leave Japan as well. By this time, Ukyo had already given up on Ranma and started dating another, and she attended the wedding as an ordinary guest. As previously stated, Tatewaki Kuno had gone overseas after graduation, so was no longer around to cause trouble. Kodachi Kuno did show up at the wedding with plans to disrupt the event, but was easily subdued by the many martial artists present, barely causing a hiccup in the proceedings. Kodachi gave up on Ranma a few weeks later, proclaiming that he had never been worthy of her. After that, it seemed that Chaos decided it was time to move on and find someone else's life to screw around with, and Akane's and Ranma's lives settled down and became a little more peaceful, if never quite entirely so.

* * *

**Author's note:**

The appendix was originally written with the idea of telling what happened with some of the more important recurring characters. However, a few people have already asked in reviews about a few of the other major story arcs, so let me add a few notes.

Ryu Kumon obviously would not get away with pretending to be Ranma, since Nodoka already met her son. Nonetheless, he would still be after the umisen-ken scroll. Genma would already have returned to Nerima, and not yet have been run off by Nodoka, so Ranma would be able to learn about the umisen-ken from him. After that, the fight with Ryu would probably have gone pretty much as it was in the manga, except that Nodoka would have been there to cheer on her son as well.

The events involving Herb and Saffron would probably have been almost identical to the manga, with the exception that Akane would have accompanied Ranma both times, and contributed to the fight with the Musk and the initial fights with the phoenix people (her involvement in the battle with Saffron would have been the same). I'm not really sure what I would have done with Ryoga in the fight with the musk, perhaps he would have followed Ranma, Akane and Mousse when they pursued Herb, but would not have been part of their group. Ryoga probably would have been permitted to accompany them in China to face the phoenix people.

Their decision to marry would probably have come shortly after the battle with Saffron. Facing such a trial together would have strengthened their love, and both of them coming so close to death would fan their physical desires. It would also encourage them to formalize their commitment to one another after having come so near to losing each other forever.


End file.
